


In the Quiet of the Desert

by galaxiebot



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Complete, M/M, Pining Lance (Voltron), Slow Burn, UFO Chasers AU, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-09-18 21:10:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 32,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9403001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxiebot/pseuds/galaxiebot
Summary: Lance is a rookie Sheriff in a small Southwestern town where he happens upon Keith and Pidge desperately trying to figure out what the connection between the rash of disappearances in the area and all the alien radio chatter Pidge keeps picking up. Lance is ready to help them, once he's convinced there might actually be something horrible happening, but he's not sure if getting dragged into Keith's search for Shiro is worth the emotional turmoil.





	1. Chapter 1

Lance closed the door to his squad car, a long flashlight in his shaking hand as he pulled his jacket closed. The desert was cold at night, that was hard to ignore, what was even harder to ignore was the shape of moving people a hundred yards in front of him, in the dark, on private property. Private, government property. He just hoped he actually had jurisdiction there, he wasn’t really sure at all, but as he stepped over the little, barbed wire fence, he knew he might be in for something messy.

“Hey,” he called as he approached the moving figures, “hey!” They seemed to freeze, the two of them quickly scuttling around after that, picking things up and trying to put it in what looked to be the sidecar on a motorcycle which Lance could barely see in the light of his flashlight. “Don’t move, quit it! This is private property. Please don’t make me use force.”

“You don’t have jurisdiction here.” The voice sounded a little bit familiar, and as I got closer of the two figures, they were shining a flashlight back at Lance. There was a telescope between the two of them, and Lance recognized the littler one first.

“Pidge? What are you doing, we talked about this last week.” Lance sighed and dropped the flashlight to his side, now just looking at two silhouettes behind their light. He had busted Pidge twice in the last month, and he was starting to feel like he was going to have to bring Pidge in.

“You don’t have jurisdiction here.” Pidge’s partner repeated. Lance groaned and belted his light when he got close enough to share theirs. He looked at Pidge first, who looked stern and ready for an argument.

“Listen,” Lance said, “I might not have jurisdiction here, but the people who do, you don’t want to deal with. Pidge, I’m taking you home, you’re a minor and it’s after midnight.”

“Lance you can’t do that!” Pidge balled his hands up into fists, looking like he was shaking in the cold. They were both wearing heavy jackets, and Lance had the feeling they’d intended to be out there all night. “I’m picking up chatter, Lance please, it’s important.”

“Pidge, you need to be in the dorm at school and I don’t even know who this is, does he have permission to act as your guardian?” Lance shoved his hands in his pocket and Pidge glanced at Keith.

“He’s in his twenties, he can take care of me fine.” Pidge looked defiant as ever, so Lance just sighed.

“Yeah, I can take care of him.” Pidge’s partner said quickly. Lance frowned and looked at Pidge.

“You two realize that this is far more incriminating right? What is a sixteen year old, doing out in the desert in the middle of the night with a twenty something? Don’t you two realize how much trouble you could get in?” Where did you even meet?” Lance groaned when they looked at each other and seemed to try to put together a story.

“School,” Pidge said, but at the same time his partner said, “at my house in the desert.”

Lance pinched the bridge of his nose, shivering as he tried to get ahold of himself. “Listen, I’m sure neither of you are doing anything bad, but I can’t let you-”

“You don’t have jurisdiction here,” Pidge’s partner repeated again. Lance was going to explode.

“If you say that one more time buddy, I’m taking you in for kidnapping a minor,” Lance said.

“But I went with him willingly!” Pidge said quickly and Lance shot him a dirty look. “I Did, we haven’t done anything wrong, you can’t do this.”

Lance was about to counter, but the equipment Pidge had with them suddenly made a loud, screeching noise, and then there was talking on it. At least, Lance thought it was someone talking. No, it was definitely someone talking, but he didn’t recognize the language at all. It didn’t sound like anything Lance had ever heard and Pidge was rushing to hit the record button on it, while his partner grabbed another piece of equipment and started to wave it around, looking for something.

“Okay, listen, I know you guys are trying to science or something, but you can’t do it here. You have to leave, now.” Lance stamped his foot on the ground. The two of them ignored him. “Listen, if you don’t want me taking you both in, you better get out of here now. Pidge, you have to come with me, it’s past curfew!”

“Lance, shut up! This is important.” Pidge was now on his computer, typing quickly and running what looked like a code breaking software as Keith started to record readings in a ledger.

“You can’t tell a Police officer to shut up! You two have to come with me now, don’t make me cuff you!” Lance grabbed Pidge’s partner’s arm as Pidge jumped up to try to defend him.

“Lance, leave Keith alone!” Pidge yelped and then looked back at his computer when it made another loud noise. Lance was cut off by a bright light hitting them, a jeep with a spotlight on it, bright enough to blind easily.

“The three of you are on private property,” the voice was over a loudspeaker on the jeep, and though the engine was running, Lance could hardly hear it, what he did hear, was the sound of a shotgun being cocked back. He went into fight or flight, tugging Keith and scrambling to scoop Pidge up, luckily he was tiny.

“Now, we’re leaving now.” Lance ignored their protests, but Pidge managed to grab his laptop and Keith had the ledger somehow as Lance dragged them away. The next thing they heard was a blast from the shotgun and suddenly all that was left of the telescope was a mangled metal tube on a stand which tottered and hit the ground hard.

“Shit.” Keith muttered, looking wide eyed.

“Run.” Lance yelled and tossed Pidge onto his feet. They both listened, scrambling after him as the jeep seemed to be trying to follow them, but Lance heard it hit the bike and equipment, so he prayed they only wanted that. He heard another blast from the gun, grabbing Pidge and helping him over the barbed wire fence. “Into the squad car!”

They had enough of a scare and a head start to get into it first, Lance pushing Pidge in the back as Keith held the door open for him. Then Keith was in the front seat next to him, Lance peeling off. He was glad he’d left the car running. The three of them were huffing, the jeep hadn’t been able to follow them since there was a guard rail on that stretch of the highway, so they drove, huffing and puffing from running and Lance drove as fast as he could back towards town.

“What the fuck were you two thinking?” Lance’s voice was wild and riddled with fear, the other two still looking terrified out into the desert, Keith almost longingly looking towards where they’d just been. “Seriously, did you know where you were? They would have shot you and buried you in a shallow grave and no one would have ever known where you were because no one is going to fuck with that research facility over there.”

“S-Sorry Lance.” Pidge’s voice was shaking, and Lance took a deep breath, trying to control himself. Keith was still staring out the window, his eyes turning back to Lance slowly.

“My bike…” he mumbled and Lance shot him a look. Boy did he want to hit him, but they were technically in his custody, so he shouldn’t let himself do that. He bit his lip and shook his head.

“That’s all you have to say for yourself? You’re an adult, you idiot. You shouldn’t have been there in the first place. You’d be lucky if I didn’t charge you for reckless endangerment of a minor, who you kidnapped, by the way.”

“Lance, take it easy,” Pidge said and when Lance turned back to look at Keith he looked like he might cry, so Lance shut up. Keith looked a lot younger now, but Lance didn’t want to let him get away with this. “Listen, we’re sorry, but we got away okay.”

“And you two are just going to be doing this again soon right?” Lance asked. Both of them twitched and looked away from him—guilty.

“Lance, please. I promise what we’re doing is important, don’t arrest Keith. I went with him willingly, and he didn’t hurt me.” Pidge was against the back of Lance’s seat, trying to stick close.

“Yeah, but it’s not like you couldn’t have been. This is ridiculous, neither of you are allowed to talk for the rest of the ride, you’re both in my custody, and I make the rules.” Lance sighed and settled back in his seat a bit.

“We can’t be in your custody, you didn’t have jurisdiction.” Keith twitched when Lance turned to shoot him an angry look, his attention slowly going back to the road as he neared the academy to drop off Pidge.

“Lance, come on, I need to do this, please.” Pidge gave him the biggest puppy dog eyes he could in the mirror and Lance sighed again. He pulled around to the back of the academy, rather than going in to take Pidge to the headmaster’s, which Pidge seemed thankful for, but he ran out of the car without really saying much else to Lance and Keith. Lance looked at Keith, who seemed ready to fight him, but Lance could see the fear in him. Going to jail would probably put a damper on whatever he and Pidge had been up to.

“Where should I take you?” He asked. Keith lit up, quickly giving him directions back to where he lived, realizing that Lance wasn’t going to actually take him to the police station. Lance followed, finding quickly that Keith honestly lived in the middle of nowhere in the desert, Lance didn’t mind being out that far, he was kind of worried though, especially when he saw the small house he was living in. “Do you even have running water?”

Keith shrugged, “some of the time. Am I free to go?” Lance couldn’t tell if Keith was being cheeky or not, so he just sighed.

“Yeah, you can go, but seriously, don’t keep doing shit like this with Pidge, you’re going to get hurt because you’re both negligent.” Lance leaned back in his seat, thinking about getting all the way back into town and wondering how long it would take to go back past where he’d found Keith and Pidge.

“Pidge is a girl,” Keith said, “and she was right, what we’re doing is important.” Lance took in Keith’s rather indignant look, but before Lance could say anything, Keith added, “so if you’re going to pretend like you know everything, maybe you should at least listen to someone talk about themselves long enough to know they’re a girl.”

Lance was astounded and Keith flailed to get his seatbelt off, obviously a little bit too angry to easily get himself out of the car. “You know,” Lance unclipped the seat belt for him and Keith took a sigh of relief, “when Pidge’s brother and father went missing, the guy that was with them was this guy who’d just graduated from the Police Academy. He had gone out into the desert with them to find something, I don’t know what, but they all wound up going missing together. For a second there, I thought I was going to be right in his place with you two.”

Keith clenched his jaw so hard Lance could see his jaw bone moving under his skin. He looked so angry again that Lance couldn’t help but think he was younger than he . “So they were together.”

“What? Of course, all the Police reports about it say so….” Lance looked back at his steering wheel as Keith opened the door, thinking about the files he’d looked over to do with the case. “Wait, no, shit I think I just gave you confidential information. You can’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t,” Keith said, “not even Pidge, but you should think twice about how you treat what Pidge and I are doing.”

Lance watched Keith slam the door and stomp into his little house, wondering what exactly he meant. When he pulled away finally, he headed straight back to where they’d been, looking around and wondering if their equipment was still there, or if the jeep was maybe. Lance got out of his car a mile marker over and walked the rest of the way to find Pidge’s mangled equipment, and Keith’s bike, seemingly still in one piece. He picked it up, got it started, and rode that back to his squad car.

He managed to get the motorcycle into his trunk enough that he could drive it back to his apartment, rolling it up into the flatbed of his truck much more easily than he’d gotten it into the squad car. He returned his squad car for the night and by the time Lance was back in his apartment, the sun was already peaking out on the horizon, so he laid himself out on his couch which was in a corner of his living room so he wouldn’t see the sun for another few hours and fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Lance woke to the sound of someone knocking on his door, and by the time he was up, Pidge had already pushed her way into his apartment. “Lance I need your help, Keith is stranded out in the desert without his motorcycle, so we have to bring him this food.” Pidge was holding up a large bag of groceries that had come from the market that was across the street.

“Pidge,” Lance said, “You shouldn’t barge into people’s houses.” He walked over to his little kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. It was his day off, and he had Keith’s bike anyway, so he was planning on heading there regardless.

“But you’re a police officer, police are supposed to help people when they need it!” Pidge gave him the worst kind of pouty look and Lance groaned. He reminded himself that Pidge wasn’t his younger sibling, and headed for the bathroom to get ready anyway.

“You’re lucky it’s my day off, here,” Lance tossed a set of keys for the truck to Pidge, “Go put the food in the truck and I’ll be down in five minutes. Buy me coffee at the diner please.”

“Got it!” Pidge scampered out of the apartment, leaving the front door open, but Lance just locked the bathroom door. Once he was clean, had his hair dry, got dressed, and then found Pidge sitting at the diner counter with a slice of pie in front of her. Pidge was sort of a fixture in the town even if the academy kids weren’t supposed to leave school grounds. There was nothing really keeping her in, and after her brother and father went missing, no one could really tell her no anymore.

He took the coffee off the counter, it was in a to-go cup, so he made her finish quick and say goodbye to the old dog that had been sleeping at her feet. Pidge was pretty quick to follow Lance anywhere, he’d been much nicer to her than most of the other cops, now he was her favorite, and Lance hadn’t even realized that she was a girl. He felt a little stupid and bad for assuming.

“So why do you have Keith’s bike in your truck?” Pidge asked as they walked out to the garage behind the diner.

“Because I’m stupid,” Lance said, “And I felt bad.” He glanced at the bike on the flat-bed, taking a better look at it than he had the night before. The only thing he really noticed now was that it had ‘Shiro’ written across the metal piece holding the seat in place. It looked a lot older than he remembered it too, but that might just have been because the layers of dirt were more visible in the light. The only parts that were clean were the engine and exhaust pipes, which looked as though they’d been rather meticulously kept clean. “Hey, did Keith know the Sheriff, you know, the one that disappeared?”

“Yeah.” Pidge nodded gravely as she got into the truck, struggling a bit to hoist herself up into it before she settled into the seat amongst the groceries. “I don’t think he would have made it if I hadn’t found him, Lance. He was in that shack all alone.”

“How long had it been?” Lance was staring at Pidge, if Keith had been waiting out there for Shiro to come back, and that made Lance shiver, that was a hell he never wanted to experience. It was always hard to tell with people like that.

“Almost five months,” Pidge said, “He had been in the Police academy. I think he left and never went back, because no one would listen.”

Lance spent the rest of the ride trying to remember Keith in a police academy uniform, but nothing rang a bell. Maybe Lance had been older than him? Keith looked sort of young, and he did remember hearing about a younger student dropping out and leaving. Everyone had assumed he’d gone home somewhere, like out of state. Maybe that was Keith.

By the time they pulled up in front of the little shack, Keith was wandering around it trying to patch holes in the roof, but he didn’t seem to have a ladder. He stopped when he saw them, and ran for the flatbed before Lance had even stopped. When Lance parked, Keith climbed into the flatbed before Lance and Pidge were even out.

“How did you get this back?” Keith was putting down the door and setting the ramp on it so he could get the bike off. “I thought they destroyed it.”

“It seems like they were only aiming for the equipment Pidge was using,” Lance said. Pidge grumbled, gathering the groceries and heading into the shack. “Your bike was lucky I guess.”

“Thank you then,” Keith said, “I don’t think I could have brought Pidge back there and I have no other way to get around.”

Lance was a little surprised, but Keith seemed so genuinely happy about the bike that it sort of made sense. He watched Keith gently ride it down the ramp and tuck it under a car park that was barely attached to the back of the shack. He closed up the back of the truck while Keith settled it and took the parts of the sidecar off that were still left.

Keith came back to invite Lance in, leading him into the little shack which was, admittedly, a little nicer on the inside than the out. There was, however, a board covered in newspaper articles and string that made Lance feel like he was on a movie set. Pidge was writing down data in a ledger and plugging it manually into some equipment she had laid out.

“So,” Lance said, “what’s all this?”

“Control room,” Pidge said. She was tart in the way she said it, her eyebrows furrowed as she forced the machine to manually take data. It didn’t seem too pleased with that whole bit. Keith walked over to look at the machine as Pidge continued to type quickly.  
“Yeah, but for what?” Lance was now staring a mothman poster which seemed to be appropriately next to an ‘I want to Believe’ poster. He really felt like he was in a movie set, so much so that normally he’d have to radioed this in, because he knew Hunk would get a laugh out of it. Something gave him the impression Keith and Pidge wouldn’t appreciate that though.

Keith and Pidge looked at each other and Keith stood straight, pulling down a sheet to reveal another board covered in newspaper and string. “We think the disappearances in this area are linked to the foreign radio chatter in the area.”

“Pidge don’t lie to him,” Keith said, “We think the foreign radio chatter is coming from aliens.”

“Keith… no one’s going to believe us if you say it like that.” Pidge stared up at him, but Keith quickly defended himself. Soon they were bickering back and forth while Lance watched, his face sarcastic and distant.

“Okay, well, I have to go home. Are you coming with me Pidge?” Lance pointed his thumb at the door and they both stopped, straightening themselves up to present a unified front.

“Wait, Lance, we know it sounds crazy, but we need help. They destroyed all of my equipment, I need to get new readings.” Pidge stood up, her hands pressed onto the table as he she put on the pleading face again.

“Pidge no, this isn’t funny anymore. You were worried about Keith and I needed to give him the bike, that’s why we’re here. Are you coming with me or not?” Lance crossed his arms, and Keith tried to speak up, but Pidge cut him off.

“Fine, leave, we’ll figure this out on our own.” Pidge scowled and waited for Lance to turn away from them.

“Yeah, fine, have fun with your conspiracy theories.” Lance waved behind him as he opened the front door of the shack.

“But that means we’ll be going right back to where we were last night, all alone.” Pidge stared Lance down, now frozen in the doorway as he considered what Pidge was saying. He turned around slowly, walking back to the table that she was sitting at.

“I can’t let you do that.” Lance had a very serious look on his face now, but Pidge didn’t waver.

“Then you’re going with us,” Pidge said. They stared at each other for a moment, Keith looking between them until someone burst through the front door, his arms full of scraps of metal and wiring.

“Whoa, what’s going on in here? Why’s everyone got that serious business look on their face?” Hunk set down the pile of junk which had a few pieces of what looked like old radio equipment in it. “Good to see you in person for once Lance, didn’t know you were friends with these two.”

“I wouldn’t say friends exactly.” Lance looked over all of the bundles of wires as Pidge jumped up to start rooting through them, finding what she needed and setting it next to her computer. The tension in the room had been cut, Hunk was in high spirits, it was hard to act serious when he was like this. Lance tried to edge towards the door, hoping to leave before he found himself in more trouble with more guns in his face.

“Lance caught us trespassing last night and saved us from getting shot,” Pidge said between muttering about parts. Hunk looked straight at Lance, shaken and pulling back from the three of them.

“How did that happen? Did the equipment trigger the security system, or did they just find you?” Hunk asked. Pidge just shrugged, heading back over to go through a jumbled pile of carefully drawn schematics. Keith looked uncomfortable when Hunk turned his attention to him like he wanted an answer.

“I don’t know, I don’t think it was my bike. It’s not that loud.” Keith shuffled in his spot.

“Wait, stop, Hunk, are you in on this?” Lance got between Hunk and Keith, who seemed relieved and went to help Pidge in favor of continuing the conversation about how they were caught.

“Well, I help Pidge make the equipment and I would really like Keith to let me replace the muffler on his bike too.” Hunk shot Keith a sharp look, but Keith just twitched and ignored him while Lance pressed his thumbs to his temples, rubbing them hard.

“Hunk,” Lance said, “You can’t be serious.”

“I wouldn’t be if I hadn’t seen Pidge’s readings. She’s got a lock on some strange stuff, dude. The research could be really helpful to proving the existence of extraterrestrials.” Hunk nodded a bit at the end as if to confirm he really believed it. Lance looked over the broken radios, bundles of wires, and heavy looking metals.

“Aren’t you afraid of aliens?” Lance couldn’t help but wish he had arrested Keith the night before, then maybe this all would have stopped, but Hunk grabbed him before he could say anything else, pulling Lance away so that the other two couldn’t hear.

“Listen, I know Lance. It sounds crazy, but you should go with us tomorrow night, I know you’re off. Even if you don’t really believe us, you’ll believe us after you’ve seen what we’ve seen,” Hunk said, “besides, I think you and Keith might really get along.” Hunk smacked Lance on the back, grinning at him in a way that was infectious.

“I guess.” Lance sighed. “At least if I’m with you, I’ll be able to keep you all safe. Even if I think you’re wrong about that last part.”


	3. Chapter 3

Lance shivered, grossly unprepared for being out in the desert late at night looking for aliens. The binoculars in his hands shook as he scanned the horizon for any cars, jeeps, trucks, men with big guns, security people, whatever he feared might show up and the only thing they’d have to get away in was his twenty-year-old truck where Pidge was sitting quietly amongst her equipment which completely filled the flatbed.

“Why are we doing this again?” Lance shuffled in place, trying to warm himself up.

“To find everyone who’s gone missing in this area.” Keith was sitting on his bike, facing the opposite direction in case anything went wrong.

“Why are you so dedicated to that again? What did you have to do with Pidge’s family?” Lance lowered his binoculars just in time to catch Keith’s nasty scowl. “Hey, it’s a fair question.”

“Lance, don’t antagonize Keith.” Hunk was sitting in the front seat of Lance’s truck, a laptop now wired into Lance’s battery so they could do something sciencey with it that Lance didn’t really understand.

“It was an honest question!” Lance spun around to look at Hunk through the passenger side door, which was hanging open. Just past Hunk, in the distance, something caught his attention enough to distract him, walking around the front end, raising the binoculars again as Pidge started to shout at Hunk about readings.

“Do you see something?” Keith was suddenly right behind him, his face hard as he looked out in the direction Lance was.

“Don’t do that, I’m jumpy enough as it is.” Lance focused the binoculars, taking a few steps out towards the horizon. Whatever it was, it was still too far for him to see. Keith was close behind him, his neck craned forward.

“Is something flying at us?” Keith asked. Lance took a few more steps, the shapes coming towards them were now more clear than they had been, and they were fast approaching. The noise started next, loud and piercing, as if it was a weapon, but really it just sounded like that was the noise those things flying towards them made.

“What the hell is that?” Pidge stood on the bed of the truck, but Hunk was spooked, starting the engine which roared and groaned to life and only added to the noise.

“Wait, I want to know what they are!” There was no way that Hunk heard Lance, or even Keith who was still close, but the shapes got closer he could see they were bikes, no headlights and they floated about four feet in the air. Lance refocused the binoculars, not noticing Keith run to his motorcycle.

Hunk was peeling off, Pidge still in the flatbed of the truck by the time Lance realized everyone else was on the move. On top of that, the bikes seemed impossibly close now. They had been off on the horizon before, now they were only a mile or two away, screeching towards them with a cloud of sand dust following.

“Lance!” Keith’s voice tore him from the binoculars, he was on his bike, which was just as loud as Lance’s truck and yanking on his arm. “Get on the bike.” Lance stared, then looked around, his truck was gone, one of the flying bikes peeling off after it’s dust cloud the other hoverbike stayed on course for him and Keith. He got on the motorcycle, gripping Keith tightly as he flew away from the hoverbike that was after the two of them.

“Don’t go that way.” Lance was shouting over all of the noise, his hands clasped together on Keith’s stomach. Keith didn’t seem to hear him, his own agenda seeming to go straight for the cliff that Lance knew was another two hundred yards or so ahead. “Keith! Keith the cliff!”

“Shut up.” Keith hissed and kept his course, Lance now banging on his shoulder as he looked back at the biker who was fast approaching. Lance turned forward only in time for Keith to cut left hard, yelling at him to lean right, which was just about all Lance could do as they narrowly turned away from the cliff. He watched the biker hover right over the edge, but he didn’t fall, instead the bike seemed to adjust to having nothing under it, the screeching noise cutting off as it turned around. Now Lance could almost see the glowing yellow eyes of the driver, his teeth looking garish under the visor. He didn’t look quite right, but he was definitely human, and now Keith was booking it back into the desert, kicking up a cloud of dust that blocked Lance’s view.

The bike was on their heels again, it’s noise turned off, so now there was only the buzz of Keith’s bike which seemed to be struggling under their weight. Lance was clinging to Keith with all his might, but after that last maneuver, he trusted him a bit more, although, he would feel much safer in his truck. Keith was turning again, heading into a narrow passage in the rocks, hopefully, small enough for them to fit without the hoverbike being able to follow.

“Hey, get ready,” Keith said. His posture changed, standing up on the bike, and Lance found himself clinging to his hips as he looked back at the driver on the hoverbike. “One, two-”

“Wait, what the hell are you counting down for!?” Lance swore, a string of Spanish he hadn’t used since he was a kid blurting out as Keith nearly drove them straight into the rock wall. Somehow, and Lance wasn’t sure how he managed to cling onto Keith during this, Keith ran the bike a few feet up the wall, which Lance was convinced had to be impossible, even if i9t had just happened. This allowed him to do the sharpest turn Lance had ever seen someone do on what was basically a dirt bike, and then they were heading straight for the hover bike.

It whizzed past them, the driver’s eyes wide as he looked the two of them over, but Lance was probably the only one that noticed. Keith was too focused on what he was doing, which Lance felt was a good thing, a very, very good thing. He was still looking back at the hoverbike when it capsized against the wall, the driver bailing with a crack of his helmet against a rock and the hoverbike slowing to a halt a few yards away, righting itself with the ground with some kind of backup system.

“Hey stop,” Lance said. Keith glanced back and slowed down, turning to look back at the driver and the hoverbike. “We should help him.”

“Are you crazy?” Keith had that same shell-shocked look he’d had the other night after the run-in with the jeep. “What if he has a gun?”

“Serve and protect, I can’t just leave him there.” Lance was already getting off the bike, reaching into his jacket and tugging out his personal gun. It was just a small pistol, but it would be enough to protect him for now.

“Lance, that’s a bad idea!” Keith called after him. He then made a gruff noise and hit the kickstand on his bike, following close to Lance who had his gun drawn with a flashlight in his other hand. His wrists were crossed, and he held his gun straight out like he was going into a raid. Keith stayed at least a few feet back, looking around more uncomfortably until he spotted the hoverbike again, carefully approaching it.

Lance reached the driver, his helmet destroyed, but he was breathing when Lance leaned down to hold his hand over the driver’s mouth. After checking him for weapons, Lance holstered his gun, the driver’s only weapon had obviously been the hoverbike, and carefully tugged the helmet off. Lance sucked in a rough breath, looking over the gray tuft of hair and then glanced at Keith.

“Hey Keith,” Lance said, “you should come see this.”

Keith was sitting on the hoverbike, making it move a little bit and figuring out the controls. He looked back at Lance, his head cocked to one side before he got off. Lance gave him a grave look, really unsure if Keith could handle this. He wasn’t positive, but he had a feeling this was going to be incredibly—rough. When Keith stopped dead in his tracks, Lance could see the hope growing in his eyes.

“Shiro?” He fidgeted, and took a few more steps towards him, kneeling down with Lance reaching out to grab his arm, unquestioning. “We need to take him with us.”

“We don’t even know if it’s really him. He was just trying to kill us.” Lance twitched away from Keith who had the worst kind of angry look on his face. Lance wasn’t sure why, but a pang of guilt hit him for even suggesting they leave Shiro there.

“Who, Keith?” Shiro’s voice was small, but it was enough to make both of them jump. His eyes were barely open, dazed and in pain. They were glowing and yellow again, his mouth forming a low word, “leave.”

“Keith, Keith we need to leave him,” Lance said, grabbing tightly onto Keith’s shoulder as Shiro started to shift and move. Keith looked between them, desperate and still clinging to the fabric of Shiro’s loose shirt. Shiro’s eyes were bright again, his arm going out to grab Keith’s. Luckily, Lance had already tugged him away.

“Wait, Lance, no!” Keith tugged on him. Lance wasn’t having it, Shiro was getting up, so he pulled Keith to the hover bike. Keith was crying out in pain back, “Shiro, Shiro it’s me! I have your bike, Shiro!”

Lance pushed Keith onto the bike but Keith willing got on, because Shiro was sprinting towards them. Keith couldn’t take his eyes off Shiro, Lance sliding his arms under Keith’s and forcing his hands onto the hoverbike controls. “Keith, move, now!”

Making one last pained noise, Keith pulled his eyes away, Shiro after them only for a moment or two before they were so far away, Lance could hardly see him. Lance held tightly onto Keith, the hoverbike going much faster than Keith’s motorcycle. Well, Shiro’s motorcycle. They were silent, getting away and heading back to the meet-up point, Keith’s shack in the desert, in hopes of finding Hunk and Pidge.

On the hoverbike it didn’t take them long, but they quickly found that they were alone, putting the hoverbike in the back and covering it with the sheet Keith used for Shiro’s motorcycle. Lance looked Keith over, folding his arms and shivering in the cold of the desert night. “I’m, I’m sorry I made you leave him.”

Keith shook his head, Lance following him around to the front of the shack. He looked so young again, and Lance couldn’t help the way he was getting protective over him. This time he was the one to feel guilty, Keith might have made mistakes putting himself and Pidge at risk, but Lance was seeing now why he was dedicated to finding out what they were doing at that facility.

“Shiro,” Lance said, “he was, like, my hero. We met my first year in the Police academy, you know. He was the reason I came to this region. I, I filled his position at the Sheriff's office.” He looked up at the stars, Keith had stopped on his front porch, holding onto the railing like he needed it to stay standing. Lance just continued to chatter. “He was a good cop, he knew the people in the community, he was able to track down people lost in the desert with ease. And honestly, I think we saw all that just now. I think we saw that he was still there.”

“Do you really think so?” Keith asked. Lance walked up onto the step next to him, setting a hand on his shoulder and giving Keith a hard look.

“I really think he’s still in there.” Lance’s knuckles were white, but Keith, as distant as he was, appreciated the strength of the contact. Maybe it was the confirmation that this was all real, or that Lance believed them now. It didn’t matter to Lance, all he wanted was for Keith to feel better than he did when they had to leave Shiro behind.

“Lance.” Keith was quiet, the cool desert air hitting them when a little breeze kicked up. Their eyes were locked, and for a moment, Lance saw Keith for something more than a scared kid. He was hard and determined looking, admirable even, but he fell into Lance’s arms, flinging his own around Lance’s neck to hang onto him for a moment. “Thank you.”

Lance sputtered a response, and Keith receded quickly, heading into the shack. He had to take a moment to breathe before following him. He’d never really noticed just how attractive Keith was. When Keith looked like that, though, his eyes deep and his body stiff, Lance’s heart skipped. He wanted to protect Keith, it wasn’t about wanting to keep Pidge safe and lumping Keith in with her anymore. It was a sudden, underlying fear that he might not get the chance to know this side of Keith.


	4. Chapter 4

In the heat of everything, Lance had forgotten that he was cold, and now he was sitting at the table with in Keith’s shack, scraps of radios lying around them, shivering and wishing that he’d had a warmer coat. Keith was being soft, padding around the shack quietly as they waited on Hunk and Pidge to come back. At some point, he came by with a mug of what Lance thought was coffee, but was actually cocoa. Lance certainly wasn’t complaining.

He held onto it tightly, his fingers pressed into the sides of the mug hard. At some point, Keith came back in with a blanket, colorful and striped all the way down, just like the ones Lance had seen every day in his childhood, the little old people wandering around their tiny town in them on days when it wasn’t quite warm enough.

“Why are you looking at my blanket like I handed you a photo of your childhood pet?” Keith’s voice wasn’t quite right. Lance could feel the joke he was trying so hard to make, but it wasn’t coming across in his tone. Instead it sounded callous and cold like he was actually mad that Lance was looking at it fondly.

“It’s a serape,” he said. Keith seemed surprised at the way Lance smiled, so Lance just smiled at him more, wrapping the serape around his shoulders, “my neighbors back home were always older, I grew up with a bunch of tiny grandparents, all wearing these all the time.”

Keith blinked at him, his mouth hung open in a strange little gasp, but his eyes looked deeper than they had. Lance watched Keith recede into his head for a moment, and Lance tilted his head to try and give him a visual to keep him there in the room with him. Keith shook his head, quick and hard, “that sounds, nice.”

Lance opened his mouth, but Hunk was through the front door of the shack before he could say anything, yelling about how he threw up twice. Sighing, Lance stood up, just hoping that Hunk had not been in his truck when he puked. He shuffled out to Pidge to help her gather the equipment out of the bed of the truck. By the time they were all inside and Keith had given them all cocoa, it was late, they were tired and Hunk was hungry, so was Lance.

“How about we go somewhere we can eat or get warm and we’ll discuss what happened tonight,” Pidge said. Lance was so relieved that Pidge and Hunk even came back that it didn’t matter to him where they were, so he followed them into the truck and drove the back into town to the little diner that he lived above. It was always open, which is the reason Lance loved his apartment, pancakes after getting off work at six in the morning were a godsend.

They piled into a booth after Lance exchanged a few words in Spanish with the woman behind the counter. She reminded him of his mom, so he always spoke Spanish with her. She was warm, the diner was warm, and everything felt better than it had out in Keith’s desert shack.

“So what happened after we split with you two?” Keith asked. That kicked off a long explanation that boiled down to Hunk and Pidge driving into town so the hoverbike wouldn’t follow. They obviously didn’t want to be seen. Keith recounted his and Lance’s half of the story, but sputtered a bit when he got to the part where they took off Shiro’s helmet.

“The driver of the hoverbike.” Lance took over. “We managed to knock him out for a bit, but when we took off his helmet, it was Shiro.” Keith looked stiff, so Lance kept talking, fielding endless questions from Pidge who was now half way across the table at them. “We don’t really know much,” Lance said. He was watching Keith bite his lip and stare at his lap, “we do know he’s out there, and we do know he’s been brainwashed, or, something.”

Lance was very aware of Keith sitting next to him. When Hunk ordered food and Pidge got herself coffee, Lance ordered coffee for Keith quietly and then himself. Sitting there with the mug in front of each of them, looking and feeling raw, Hunk and Pidge looked uncomfortable and tired, but soon Hunk was nudging a plate of pancakes in Keith’s direction. Lance had thought he’d been ordering quite a lot of food.

“This has been a lot,” Hunk said, “but pancakes make everything better.”

Keith smiled, taking the plate and then the bottle of syrup, pouring a good amount of it onto the short stack. “Thanks Hunk.” Keith glanced at Lance, and he focused in on his menu, just staring for a moment as he tried to avoid looking up at Keith, “I think, we’re going to have to go find him. He might have answers about your family too Pidge.”

“I think so too, it’s the only way for us to know what’s really going on at that facility.” Everyone looked at Lance when he spoke, Pidge beaming at him.

“Wait, so you’re in on this?” Keith looked hopeful.

“I have to be,” Lance said, “at this point, we’re a team. We’re all in this together.” The words were hollow in his mouth, but everyone at the table seemed to believe them, Keith especially. Lance didn’t want to say he’d basically taken them straight from Shiro in a training exercise they’d done together.

They finished eating, hashed out a few plans, and talked over everyone’s roll. If they were getting answers, they had to get Shiro back. Lance’s whole body felt weak with worry as he let Pidge out of the car behind the academy, the sun peaking over the horizon. He’d be on patrol the next time they made an attempt to go onto that property. If he was caught, he’d lose his job or worse.

“You look like you need sleep.” Keith was toying with an old knife that he normally had on him. Lance was sort of getting used to Keith’s presence. He was less annoying when sedated, and when they were together, they made a decent enough team. It was strange, but he felt like he could trust Keith to have his back in a bad situation.

“I do.” Lance was quiet, driving out into the desert as the sun rose slowly behind them. Keith looked at him every now and again, Lance just tried to ignore it. After a while though, when they were nearing Keith’s shack, he met eyes with him, trying to figure out what he was up to. “Something wrong?”

“N-No,” Keith said, “I was just thinking about the coffee.”

“Coffee?” Lance, baffled, looked back at the road just in time to see something moving in the distance, away from Keith’s shack at an alarming rate.

“Yeah, I’m mean, you ordered me coffee back at the diner, I just-”

“What is that? Get the binoculars.” Lance knocked on the glove compartment and Keith jumped in his seat.

“Uh.” Keith got the binoculars, looking out at the shape riding away, just as it went over the horizon. “I think, it was the hoverbike.”

“Was someone on it?” Lance glanced between Keith and the road, but Keith just shrugged, shaking his head. “Damn. It must have a homing device.”

“But the controls indicated that something like that would need to be activated from the bike itself.” Keith furrowed his brow, looking out at the hoverbike again. Lance pulled up to the shack, on guard and grabbing his sidearm again quickly.

“Keith.” Lance pressed his finger to his lips, gesturing at the front door. It was open, the lock broken, and a surge of panic washed over Keith that was visible. Keith seemed to understand, getting out of the truck with Lance like everything was normal. “Go around, I’ll go in.”

Keith nodded, walking around the corner of the house with his knife out. Lance wasn’t sure why, but he wasn’t afraid walking into the shack, his gun drawn as he poke through each room. It looked like somebody had gone through everything. Keith’s wall of connections and articles about aliens, the files of data Pidge had created, and every piece of equipment they had rebuilt. He shook his head, entering Keith’s bedroom quietly.

“Shit, Shiro, I don’t want to hurt you.” Keith’s voice was right outside the bedroom window, and Lance stared a moment, running up to it. He was stunned, Shiro’s hand made of metal and glowing as he held Keith to the ground.

Lance got himself together, looking around as he tugged the window open. Grabbing a lamp, he chucked it out the window, straight down so that it shattered on the back of Shiro’s head. It was surprisingly effective, Shiro going limp in Keith’s arms. Keith stared up at Lance, bug-eyed and squirming under Shiro’s limp body.

“Hold on, I’ll come help you.” Lance ducked to get back inside the window, shaking himself a moment. He took a deep breath. “I just smashed a lamp on one of my personal hero’s head.”

“Lance, I can hear you,” Keith called. Lance jumped and holstered his gun, jogging around to the back as Keith dragged Shiro up, one of his arms over his shoulders. Lance got under Shiro’s other arm, leading them around, but he stopped Keith when he tried to head back into the shack.

“Keith, we can’t, they know where you are.” Lance tugged on his arm a bit. Keith wouldn’t budge, looking at his shack and then at Shiro again, back and forth for a bit. “Keith.”

“Okay, you’re right, but where?” Keith looked young again, and Lance tried his hardest to look reassuring, but honestly, Keith’s home had just been invaded, what really could Lance do to make him feel safe? In the academy, he remembered someone telling him that after a home invasion, the best thing to do was provide someone a feeling of safety, but he really wasn’t sure what he could to do make Keith comfortable.

“My place,” Lance said, “if he’s still brainwashed when he wakes up we’ll be able to contain him.”

Keith seemed to like that idea, so they were back in the truck with Shiro between them. For good measure, and despite Keith’s arguing, Lance handcuffed Shiro while they drove. Shiro was out like a light, and the two of them managed to get him into Lance’s apartment without anyone noticing, which Lance was eternally grateful for. By the time they had Shiro laid out on the couch, Lance didn’t even bring up handcuffing him again, and Keith insisted on staying there next to him instead of sleeping.

“If you need anything,” Lance said. Keith was staring at Shiro, his face unmoving and sober. Lance had to stop the strange wave of anxiety that ran through him. If Shiro was still brainwashed, if he woke up and hurt Keith, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself for that. As he wandered into his room, he stood in front of his bed, unsettled as he watched the sun streaming into the room. It was his favorite thing about this apartment, the calm bedroom with no road noise hitting it, and the window which looked out on the quiet desert.

He slipped his shirt off, setting it on the armchair near his closet and he paused, looking over the serape hanging over the back. Lance picked it up, looking over the slightly incorrect pattern in the weave, thinking about making it with his grandmother and the little ladies she would weave with every week.

Lance found a clean shirt and walked back out to Keith, who was still staring intently at Shiro, and wrapped the serape around his shoulders like Keith had done to Lance. Keith blinked, a smile crawling over his face as he pulled the serape close. He looked at Lance for the first time since they’d gotten back. “I think I need to get some sleep,” Keith said.

“Go, use my bed,” Lance said, “I can watch Shiro.”

“You need sleep too, though.” Keith’s eyebrows knitted together, but just then the sleeping form that was Shiro reached out for his arm. They both jumped, a surge of terror shaking Lance’s spine as he naturally reached for his gun, but it wasn’t there.

“Sleep.” Shiro shifted and looked at them, his eyes dark and certainly not glowing. “Both of you, sleep. I’m not, I won’t hurt you anymore.”

“Shiro you’re okay!” Keith sounded like his wife had just gotten out of surgery and Lance felt his heart drop. He hated that feeling, Shiro, he was so important to who Lance became, but here Lance was, feeling bad that Shiro was alive. No, that wasn’t it, Lance always had a lot of trouble understanding his emotions and it had nothing to do with the way Keith was looking at Shiro. At least he was going to tell himself that. “What happened to you? Where have you been?”

“Later.” Shiro’s voice was weak and Lance turned to the kitchen, getting a glass of water. He set it on the table behind Shiro as he reassured Keith that he’d be all right and he should just get some sleep. When Keith finally followed Lance back to his bedroom, Keith kept the serape tight around him, looking over the walls at the warm colors Lance had painted them.

“This is nice.” Keith’s eyes were wide, a weird look of relief still on his face as Lance offered him a pair of sweats. “Oh thanks.”

“No trouble. Do you mind sharing a bed?” Lance crawled into his bed from the foot, his shoulder pressed to the wall to give Keith whatever room he needed to feel comfortable. Keith just shook his head and got in with Lance, pressing himself into the pillows quietly. Neither of them said goodnight, but Keith reached out, grabbing onto the back of Lance’s shirt, the serape still wrapped around him tightly.

“Thank you,” he mumbled, “for everything.”

“Of course. Protect and serve right?” Lance’s voice was tight, looking at the wall he could only see Keith staring at Shiro all over again.

“I think this is more than just that.” Keith said it with such confidence, that Lance nearly spat about hardly knowing each other, but he held his tongue, Keith still had something to say. “You’re a good person, Lance. Sorry for being so coarse when I first met you.”

Lance shifted, Keith was still holding onto his shirt. “Thanks, Keith.” He was pretty sure Keith was already asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Lance woke up with Keith pressed against his back, the bright sun streaming into the room, but Keith was still sound asleep. He could hear someone moving in the kitchen, so he carefully got away from Keith and slunk off the end of the bed watching as Keith spread himself out with Lance’s serape still around him. When Lance found himself some sweatpants, and a clean shirt, he wandered out to the thick coffee smell and the warm air of the morning.

Shiro was standing in the kitchen, a full pot of in his hand with the window above the sink open wide. Lance never really opened his windows, but it was to wake up to the fresh air. He might start opening his windows more.

“Morning,” Shiro said, “sorry for intruding, but I didn’t think you’d complain if I made coffee.”

“It’s okay, thank you.” Lance took the mug that Shiro offered him over the counter, sitting down at the breakfast bar and yawning as he tried to process everything over again.

“I think I remember you from the academy.” Shiro was pouring himself a cup, “we did a few training assignments together, right?”

“Yeah,” Lance said. It was strange having Shiro in his apartment, especially when he looked this ragged and tired. Lance had looked up to him for a long time, being so close under him at the academy made him seem like a bit of a god. Now he seemed more like a malnourished gladiator standing with messy hair and stubble.

“You know, you were the one who was a really good shot right? I remember you hitting something with your sidearm that was unreal.” Shiro’s eyes swam over the floor and then he looked at Lance, “sorry. The memories are kind of coming back in strange bursts.”

“That’s okay.” Now Lance was star struck, he’d never forgotten that training mission because it had been the best shot he’d ever made in his life, but he never expected anyone else to remember. “How are you feeling?” Lance was feeling warmer, sipping his coffee after he’d added cream and sugar.

“Better,” Shiro said, “things are blurry sometimes and I don’t really remember anything I did while I was in that facility, but I’m better for being here.”

“That’s good.” Lance shifted to cross his leg on the chair, watching Shiro add a ridiculous amount of sugar to his coffee. “Honestly, when I saw you I was shocked. It’s a good thing you remembered Keith at all, I think that’s what saved us the first time.”

“I don’t think I could ever forget Keith. I could tell it was him somehow through all of the distress of being brainwashed.” Shiro stared out the window and Lance lowered his eyes to his coffee again, trying not to think about what Shiro just said, what the implications were. Lance couldn’t handle that at the moment, but he was saved by Keith padding his way into the kitchen. He was quiet about it, Lance’s serape around him tight as if he were cold.

“Shiro.” Keith’s voice seemed to snap Shiro out of whatever it was he’d been thinking about. “It’s good to see you.”

Lance watched Keith’s face for all of a moment before he stood up. “I’m going to take a shower, you two go ahead and catch up.”

They both thanked him, and in the safety of the running water, Lance tried to imagine himself in the rain. He turned the water cold and let it wash over him hoping if it might wipe his memories away. His head was against the wall, hearing the dampened sounds of Shiro and Keith talking in the kitchen. Everything felt cold, so Lance just forced himself to feel colder. He’d feel better with Pidge and Hunk around later, he could manage himself better in a group.

When he stepped out of the shower Keith and Shiro’s voices seemed more real, soft words spoken between two people who obviously knew each other well. Lance tried his hardest not to listen, but he caught a few things here or there, mostly notably Shiro asking about the academy and the shame in Keith’s voice when he said he’d dropped out. There was quiet for a bit after that, and he wasn’t sure if their voices got too low or if they’d stopped talking. Lance was trying his hardest to give them time, rubbing his hair entirely dry with a towel before he brushed his teeth.

“Lance,” Shiro said. Lance jumped, but Shiro wasn’t talking to him, he was still talking to Keith, “He’s very kind, isn’t he.”

“Yeah he is.” Keith’s voice was warm and sounded dreamy for a moment, but then Shiro was laughing, low and glowing. It was like a parent laughing at their child.

“You’re no different than you were when I left,” Shiro said. Lance tuned out, feeling like he was eavesdropping now, but he couldn’t help playing that exchange over in his head a few times until it sounded exactly like he wanted it to sound. He rinsed his mouth, feeling better as he rubbed lotion on his arms and face before heading out into the living room, half in his wrinkled uniform.

“Are you going to work tonight?” Keith watched him slip his shirt on over a tank top, Shiro was in the kitchen again.

“Yeah, two on, two off,” he said, “but I’m going to be out by eleven tonight.”

“Okay, we were thinking we might be able to trigger some of Shiro’s memories out in the desert.” Keith glanced at Shiro over the counter, who nodded and watched the two of them.

“That sounds like a plan,” Lance said, “You should get ahold of Pidge and Hunk. Let them know that we have Shiro now. If I’m not off by midnight, I’ll just meet you all out there.”

Keith nodded and Lance made himself another cup of coffee. He watched their worried faces as he left, but he wasn’t particularly worried about that day. Lance spent most of it parked outside the boarding school at the request of the headmaster. She was worried students were sneaking out, but Lance knew they were, mostly it was Pidge, but there were others. Most just went to the diner for a bite of food that wasn’t from the school cafeteria.

After the fifth or sixth round of the little town and the few hours parked in front of the school, Lance was nearing nine pm and he was wondering if he could get off early. He was near the back of the school, watching the dormitory lights go out when he saw it, the flash of someone in a skintight bodysuit and someone in similar clothes right behind them. Lance started the car, they didn’t look like a threat, but they were carrying something pretty large out of the school.

One of them nearly dropped whatever it was, and as the blanket wrapped around the body slid off, Lance’s heart froze over. It was Pidge. His lights were on, chasing down the two that could see him clearly now. He didn’t care, whatever it took to get them to leave Pidge was what he needed. They were quick, getting into some kind of little pod with Pidge in tow. Lance slowed, wanting to ram it, but he was far too worried he might hurt Pidge.

So he followed, dropping his lights as they shot out towards the highway. He didn’t want anyone to know it was a cop car pursing this strange pod. It threw off so much light that Lance worried people might be able to tell. That worry started to go away as he managed to grapple his phone from his pocket, calling Keith as he followed the pod into a less populated area at high speed.

“Lance?” Keith’s voice seemed small.

“Desert, now, they have Pidge. Mile marker eighty.”

“Shit.” Keith hung up, and Lance tossed his phone into the passenger seat as the pod took a swift turn over the guardrail into the desert. Lance swore, rounding the guardrail and following, but it set him back a bit, the pod racing out towards the spot they’d first run into those hoverbikes. He pulled the loudspeaker, trying to think of something good to say while he barreled through a cloud of dust at the fastest the squad car has probably ever gone before, his chest hurting because he was forgetting to breathe.

Then he heard the roar of a bike, glancing at his side briefly trying to find the source until he saw the pod careening off to one side where it hit a group of large cacti. In its wake was Keith looking like a rodeo clown who’d just faced a bull head on. Lance pulled up to him, looking him over and then at the pod.

“Did you just play chicken with a potentially evil spaceship?” Lance was leaning out his window, watching his pickup truck come towards them, Shiro hanging out one window.

“I did.” Keith, bewildered and honestly looking like he was shocked he was still alive , turned to Lance and reached out for him. “I can’t believe I-”

The door on the pod opened, a short staircase falling out of, but it didn’t make it over the cacti, so that left the man Lance had seen, his bright orange hair and moustache with his hands on either side of the doorway. Keith headed towards him, so Lance followed, approaching together, the man still looking them over, ready to spring on them.

“Why did you take our friend?” Keith asked. His voice was firm, and Lance could feel the rage hiding in the calm tone. Hunk and Shiro were coming up behind them, but a girl shot out from under the man’s arm. She had a long rod in her hand, her arms above her head as she made to swing it at Lance.

The scream that came out of Lance was humiliating, but it might have been worth seeing the look on both Keith and this girl’s face when he fell flat on the ground with his hands up for protection. She had her knees in his stomach, and he was going out pretty quick. His vision was blurry and spinning, the only thing he could see managed to come right out of his mouth.

“You’re gorgeous.” His eyes were swimming, who was he talking to? He felt a crack on his head and then he was out like a light.

When Lance came to, he was laying on the ground with his jacket over him like a blanket. The stars looked wrong for a moment, like they were in different places, but slowly they started to make sense again. He squirmed, finding another jacket on his legs and a third under his head. This one was Keith’s, and he had to stop himself from turning into the smell.

“Oh good, you’re finally awake.” Keith’s voice sounded more sarcastic than Lance had ever heard it.

“Where are we?” Lance sat up rubbing his head and looking around at everyone staring at him. He looked up again and he realized why the stars looked wrong, it’s because they were close. “What the hell?”

“Welcome to the Castle of Lions.” Keith swiped his jacket back, and Lance found his hat next to him on the table, setting it back on his head. “We’re in space, and you got knocked out after you tried to hit on this alien princess.”

Lance narrowed his eyes and found her standing between the man from the pod and Shiro. The look on Keith’s face left a feeling in Lance’s chest like his ribs had just caved in, he wanted to explain, but Keith went right back to Shiro. He mumbled something Lance couldn’t her, keeping close to him and Lance felt his insides start turning to ice.

“I’m really sorry about that.” She said hesitantly, “my name is Allura, we thought you were on Zarkon’s side. I didn’t realize you were an ally of Pidge’s.”

“Zarkon?” Lance slipped his jacket back on and then spun hard to find Pidge next to Hunk, looking completely fine. “Oh thank god you’re okay.” Keith looked decidedly worse after that came out of Lance’s mouth and Lance remembered the look on his face when he’d reached out for Lance in his squad car. The moment Keith realized he’d survived that stunt, and Lance felt all the cold pool in his stomach, making him sick.

“Nice to see you too, Lance.” Pidge said it genuinely and gave him a hand getting off the table. “Want to hear a full explanation?”

“Let’s start with how we got into space, or maybe the alien Princess, or why you guys knocked out Pidge? How can we even trust these two?” Lance looked at the two aliens standing among his friends, and Keith briefly looked like he agreed, but he Lance knew he was too stubborn to agree with anything Lance said at the moment. Not out loud at least.

“How do we know if we can trust you?” The man from the pod spoke up, sticking his finger in Lance chest, which almost made the whole comment seem, comical. Lance stared at him a moment, wide eyed and, at least in his head, probably looking like a cat meme.

“Coran!” Allura tugged him back, frowning at him.

“Everyone calm down.” Shiro put his hands up and Coran backed away from Lance entirely. “Let’s all talk this out together. We’re obviously on the same side, there’s just been a misunderstanding.”

Everyone begrudgingly agreed, and Allura led them all to the center of the ship, a room with a big conference table where they could talk. Pidge was caught up in every piece of tech she saw, while Hunk chattered about the engineering that must be done on a ship that size. Lance let everyone get ahead of him, falling back as he rubbed his head where he’d been hit. Keith was near enough to him, but Lance didn’t want to try to bring it up with anyone in earshot. So he wallowed as they gathered to have their meeting.


	6. Chapter 6

Lance had never squirmed so much in his life as he did when listening to Allura and Coran tell their story, but they both were ready to fight to the death to prevent what happened on Altea from happening on Earth and the other planets Zarkon had been working on. They were from another galaxy, and their war had spilled onto so many others that they both acted guilty when there was only two of them doing all they could to protect people they didn’t even know.

“So this weapon, Voltron, why haven’t you gone to get it?” Shiro was being rather level headed for having been brainwashed for the better part of the last two years. His metal arm was like a beacon of what had been done to the people Zarkon was toying with in that facility.

“There’s only two of us. Without enough paladins, we feared we’d just be leading Zarkon to it if we tried.” Coran looked defeated. Allura stepped in, clearing her throat as she set her hand on his arm gently.

“But that’s behind us now,” Allura said. Coran looked confused. “Right now, there are five paladin candidates directly in front of us. I think we could teach you to pilot the lions and form Voltron.”

“Princess are you crazy? None of these children have ever piloted a spaceship, let alone a lion of Voltron.” Coran yelped and turned over their hands, holding onto Allura’s forearm tightly.

“We have to try, Coran.” Allura seemed firm, but Shiro put his hand up.

“Wait, Coran is right, we might just end up handing this Voltron right over to Zarkon.” Shiro jumped a bit when Pidge shifted in her seat.

“And I can’t leave to find some lions, I need to help my family, they were in the same facility that Zarkon was holding Shiro in.” Pidge frowned, her brow knitted together as she gave Allura and Coran a hard look. “I”m sorry, I can’t just leave them behind.”

“Yeah, there’s no way I could pilot a lion or whatever. Some of us might have flight experience, but those were planes, like Earth planes. We’re not heroes, we were just trying to find the people who’ve gone missing.” Hunk looked as defeated as Coran did and Lance flinched at the mere mention of flight experience. He probably wanted to help, but his own fear and logic were getting the better of him. Lance knew that look well.

“Wait.” It was the first time Keith had spoken. “We should try, we’d be saving so many lives-”

“I can’t just leave my dad and brother down there.” Pidge shot Keith a look.

“It’s not like we couldn’t rescue them after we had the lions.” Keith looked hard again, but Allura was holding onto his every word.

“No.” Pidge said, “I don’t care, Keith. When we started this, you promised to help me get my family back. If you all leave, I’ll be going there myself.”

“Enough.” Shiro looked angry now, “there’s no way we’re splitting up now.”

“But even with just three of you, we could pilot Voltron and defend the galaxy!” Allura looked distraught, and tired, and Lance found himself staring at her. She was rather pretty like this, he liked when she looked so determined, but that earned him a low growl and a mutter from Keith, which got him to stop spacing out just as Coran was pointing out that there would be no one to pilot the ship if Allura and him were piloting lions.

“Wait.” Lance was loud, his stomach felt like ice and he shot Keith a cold look before he started talking again. It was low, no one else probably would have noticed it. With everyone staring at him, he got quieter, less spastic than he thought he would be. “Don’t any of you know what a compromise is? What if we agree to help you with Voltron, after we save the Holt’s from the facility? Is that enough to get you all to stop being so passive aggressive with each other?”

The last part maybe wasn’t quite right, but Lance had gotten the rest out at least. There was still a sharp pain in his head and his stomach was making him feel cold, like it was slowly reaching up to his heart, trying to make his blood icy too. Allura and Coran stared at him until Shiro said that it wasn’t a bad idea. Everyone slowly agreed after that, everyone but Keith, who was staring at Lance agape. Allura convinced everyone it would be safest for them to stay in the castle for the night, which they all agreed with because there was really no telling what might happen when they got back.

Coran led them all to rooms they could sleep in, Pidge asking him more about Voltron as they walked. Lance stayed near the back, shivering slightly in the hard metal corridors. He kept his hands on his elbows, holding onto himself and ignored the look Keith gave him, refusing to talk for just a little bit. Keith eventually seemed to give up on waiting for Lance to talk, so when Coran pointed them down a hallway to two doors he said were their rooms, Keith managed to convince Coran they could make it the rest of their way on their own.

“Lance are you okay?” Keith was on Lance’s heels as he shuffled towards what Lance just prayed was a normal bed.

“I’m fine Keith,” he said, “An alien hit me so hard that I blacked out earlier. I’m as fine as I can be.”

“R-Right, but I mean,” Keith rubbed the back of his neck, “like, emotionally?”

Lance sighed, throwing his head back as he walked. He didn’t really know what to do with Keith, obviously Keith might have lashed out at Lance accidentally, but Lance was busy wallowing in self pity to really feel bad for him. Right now, Lance just wanted to sleep off his headache and warm up. Not that he really wanted to know where he stood with Keith just then, he wasn’t sure the impending doom of the planet being destroyed really needed to be topped off with heartache.

“I just need sleep.” Lance turned into the first door they came to and it opened automatically, so when he went through it, it closed after him. That was a relief, a sigh coming out of him as he leaned against the door. He could hear Keith, just barely, on the other side, it sounded like he said Lance’s name, but Lance wasn’t really sure.

Pushing himself off the door, he poked around the room and found some soft clothes, he wasn’t really sure if it was okay for him to put them on, but he didn’t want to be in uniform much longer. He folded up his shirt and pants carefully, slipping on the pajamas and wrapping a robe around himself for extra warmth. It wasn’t much, he was still shivering, heading into the bathroom to rinse out some of the blood taste in his mouth and look at the lump on his head in the mirror. He wasn’t sure if he had a black eye, or if the lack of sleep in the past few days was starting to give him dark circles.

He washed his face, finding something sweet smelling that seemed to be soap to help make him feel cleaner and then rubbed some of the lotion he came across into his face and neck. It felt like he was at home, doing a normal routine, something he did almost every night felt wonderfully homey. Lance cracked his neck, stretched himself out, and flopped onto the bed with a thud. His hand catching a familiar feeling blanket underneath the sheet that was on the small bed.

Lance propped himself on one elbow, running his fingers carefully over the loose weave and skewed pattern. He couldn’t quite register it, but he sat up, pulling the serape around his shoulders and hiccuping. Lance hadn’t been home in five years, he hadn’t seen his mother or his father and now he might never make it back. If they had to flee Zarkon for the better of the galaxy, Lance knew that he would follow Keith to form Voltron, whatever that even meant, because he knew he agreed with him.

He settled the serape against his face, holding it close as he sobbed quietly alone on his bed. It smelled like Keith, it smelled like home, he nuzzled the soft blanket over and over, letting it soak up everything he’d been feeling. Lance didn’t have time to question himself as he stood up, his body moving on its own. He’d stopped crying, his bare feeting hitting the cold ground and not even really feeling it. He was finally warm.

The corridor was longer than he’d realized, Lance wasn’t sure how Keith had managed to sneak into his room after getting the serape, but Lance tended to lose track of time in the bathroom. He walked tentatively, making sure that he didn’t miss some kind of turn, or ghost past the door he was looking for on accident. His knuckles were white hot, holding onto the serape around his shoulders, everything felt warm. The castle seemed to breathe warmth for the first time since he’d been there, and he wondered if they’d covered him in jackets because he’d been shivering when he blacked out.

He skidded to a stop by the first door he came to, looking it over and taking a deep breath. Lance knocked, his throat tight from crying, but at least he was standing in front of the door and when Keith opened the door, Lance knew he could face this right now.

Keith’s eyes flashed like he’d been expecting someone else, but Lance put that thought off. He stepped into Keith, wrapping his serape covered arms around him like wings and sunk into his frame.

“Lance?” Keith’s voice was hoarse as Lance buried his face in Keith’s shoulder. Taking a deep breath to try and work up to saying something, Lance shuddered when Keith hugged Lance back, his hands tight on the back of Lance’s robe, his head turned to nest against Lance’s neck as they both desperately held onto each other for a moment.

“Thank you.” Lance pulled away slowly, his bare feet warm against the cold ground as Keith stared up at him, still startled. Keith looked like he might say something, but Shiro appeared down the hall, so Lance took a full step back to keep the moment they’d had private. Shiro showing up didn’t even stir him, smiling at Keith briefly before he turned back towards his room. “G’night Keith. Try to get some rest, okay?”

“Okay, night.” Keith gave a confused little wave as Lance took long strides to his room. By the time Lance was back, he had heat running down his spine, curling up on his bed with the serape around his shoulders. He pulled the thin blanket over him with his face heavy on the pillow. Falling asleep was much easier, now that he was warm.

He woke to the sound of an alarm, screeching and screaming as he threw the blanket off the bed and ran out, the serape still around his shoulders. Lance followed Keith and Pidge down the confusing hallways to the command center where they were surrounded by view screens looking out on stars.

“Whoa.” Lance stared, looking around the room slowly as Keith came up behind him. Allura was in the middle at some sort of command center, looking the five of them over with Coran. 

“Future paladins of Voltron, welcome to your first training mission.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jsyk I also post this fic every other Friday on my [Tumblr](https://www.galaxiebot.tumblr.com) for free if anyone was interested! 
> 
> Also, thank you all so much for the support this fic has received, I'm about half way through posting it, and only have one more chapter to write before it's done! I'm so excited to complete it, I really hope you all like where the story goes!! :3


	7. Chapter 7

The training was long and hard, but not unlike what Lance had done to become a Police officer. Somehow, Keith excelled at it all, which would have been more frustrating if Lance wasn’t rather infatuated with him at the moment. They bickered in practice, on the range, here or there, it was inevitable with them, but they’d figure it out later in the day when they were all resting together. It made Lance feel a lot closer with them all, especially Keith.

By the fourth day, Pidge was antsy, she wanted to rescue her brother and father, while Coran wanted to keep them training. They trusted each other more now, yet the Alteans still seemed weary of the humans. Even Allura opened up slowly, she got along with Shiro and Pidge and Hunk, Keith and Lance sort of put her on edge. At the very least, it seemed like she was on edge with Lance because she’d thought he was hitting on her and then she’d knocked him out. He hadn’t really cleared anything up with her yet, but it would come. He could be patient about apologizing since she’d kicked his ass right after.

“Pidge I know it’s hard thinking about your family being down there, but the more prepared we are for this the better.” Shiro had his hand on Pidge’s shoulder, the two of them had gotten closer in the last week. No one new why, Pidge started to treat Shiro like an older brother. Half the team did that now anyway.

Lance tried to avoid thinking about seeing Shiro by Keith’s door on the first night. He retracted while everyone around him bickered about going in too soon or not soon enough. Keith stayed out of it too, mostly, glancing at Lance as Pidge tried to make her case to Coran. Lance didn’t look at him, getting stuck in a weird feedback loop of wondering what Shiro had been doing there. Keith and Shiro certainly didn’t act like they might be lovers, but Lance knew that sort of thing was difficult to see from the outside.

“Lance!” Pidge was in front of him, her hands on her hips as she stood strong. “Lance pay attention, we want your opinion too.” She was clearly hoping Lance would be on her side.

“Pidge, I think Shiro’s right. If we’re unprepared, someone could get killed.” Lance couldn’t help the way his eyes went to Keith, trying to track down where he’d been looking. He was a little surprised to discover that Keith was looking back at him. Pidge smacked Lance in the stomach though, and Lance brought all his attention back to her. She looked so hurt for a moment, Hunk and Coran quickly making excuses to leave with Keith looking like he might follow.

“Lance, what if they kill them before we get down there, look what they did to Shiro’s arm, they might mutilate them!” She hiccuped, so Lance got down on her level. He’d caused this even if Shiro and Coran might have started it. Shiro patted Pidge’s head and said he would come back with water for her, which left Lance alone with Keith, Allura, and a now sobbing Pidge.

“I know how much this means to you,” Lance said, “Pidge I think about my family all the time too. We’re going to help you get your brother and dad back safe and sound, but we don’t want you to get hurt. They wouldn’t feel good being saved if they lost you.”

“Your family’s not in what might be a death camp.” That made Allura, Keith, and Lance cringe, and Pidge cut off whatever she was going to say after it. “What do you know?”

“I haven’t seen my mom or dad in five years.” Lance said it softly, like he was hoping only Pidge could hear, but he saw Allura and Keith’s eyes go wide behind Pidge. “I haven’t even talked to my mom in two months. I only realized that when we got here.” Pidge looked guilty, her hand going to rub her arms as she avoided making eye contact with Lance. “And if we don’t take out Zarkon and that facility, I might never have the chance to see them again.”

“Sorry Lance,” Pidge said. She was subdued now, and Lance told her it was okay. Pidge left willingly to go back to her room with Shiro, sipping a glass of water she held in both hands.

“Was that all true?” Keith asked. Allura was looking at them, so Lance just nodded, slipping his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He’d taken to wearing it in the ship, it made him feel better, even if it was his puffy uniform coat.

“I’m so sorry.” Allura said, “the more people Coran and I meet, the more I realize just how complicated this whole war is for everyone.” Allura had that guilty look again, she had it often.

“It’s all right Princess.” Lance’s voice was confident, it sounded fake to him, but he was trying as hard as he could whenever he was in front of the others. “You guys made it to Earth before Zarkon could really hurt us. We have a chance to make sure that what happened to your planet never happens again.”

Allura’s shoulders relaxed, and for the first time, at least Lance was pretty sure it was the first time, she smiled at Lance. “Thank you Lance,” her voice beamed with admiration for a moment, “you’ll make a good diplomat one day you know.”

“Me? Really?” Lance laughed, and so did Allura. It felt so normal and nice. He didn’t even notice Keith slip out of the room. “I’m just a cop and an immigrant at that. Not many other people think I’d be good in government.” They chatted, Allura reminded Lance a lot of a girls he’d dated in high school. Smart and definitely way out of his league.

“Ah.” Allura looked around them, “where’d Keith go?” She had turned to say something to him and Lance dropped his shoulders.

“Shit.” He realized that he might have fucked up again, but Keith wasn’t that jealous, was he? “I’m going to go find him.”

“Oh no.” Allura had a knowing look on her face, one of genuine concern, “I hope I didn’t put myself in a bad spot with the two of you again.”

“What do you mean?” Lance paused in the doorway, and Allura changed the way she was looking at him, now she just made Lance blush as she crossed her arms behind her back and smiled.

“Oh come on,” Allura said, “I was on top of you in the desert when you said ‘you’re gorgeous’ I knew exactly who you were looking at and it was not me.” Lance bit the inside of his lip, trying to think of something to say.

“So, you didn’t knock me out because you thought I was coming onto you?” Lance sounded stupid, there was no getting around it, he just did, but it made Allura laugh.

“You had a gun, I thought you were a threat.” Allura leaned into him a bit, looking up at Lance in a way that was teasing, just like his older sister used to. “Anyway, I’ll try not to interfere with the two of you, if you need help just ask. So long as you’ll do the same for me.”

“Wait who-?” Lance furrowed his brow, looking down at Allura who stood straight when the door on the other side of the room opened. Shiro gave them sort of a curious look, but Lance just smiled at Allura when she gave him that same look she had before, “okay, deal.”

Allura giggled, and Shiro looked even more puzzled than before, but Lance turned and left determined not to let this be another strange misunderstanding between him and Keith. If he had Allura backing him, it shouldn’t be very hard. Even if Keith went and asked, she’d confirm. That somehow made him feel more comfortable. He felt a lot less comfortable when he didn’t find Keith in the training center fighting with a sentry, or the gym, or the pool, and now he was standing in front of Keith’s empty room.

He sighed, going back to his own with a shiver. It wasn’t that cold in the ship, Lance just always seemed to be cold lately. Lance wrapped himself in his serape and started to pad around the hallways quietly in hopes he’d run into Keith. It wasn’t long before he was sort of lost and doing more looking at the ship than looking for Keith until he stumbled across a large viewing window in what looked like it could be a ballroom.

Keith was sitting in the center of the window, just looking out at the stars which seemed closer every time Lance looked. Lance walked quietly, but halfway through the ball room said, “hey.” Keith jumped, but he looked fine when he turned to face Lance. “Is his where you disappear to when no one can find you?”

“Kind of,” Keith said, “what are you doing here?”

“I was a little worried, you just cut out on Allura and I earlier.” Lance found that the floor dipped in front of Keith, allowing him to hang his legs off the edge of the dance floor while he looked out at the window. Lance sat next to him, not close, but close enough for Keith to reach out to him if he wanted.

“Yeah,” Keith said, “sorry. I got a little into my own head.”

“It’s okay.” Lance realized he was being vain assuming it was about him before. “Are you okay though?” Keith cringed.

“I think so now.” Keith looked back at the stars. “Hearing you talk to Pidge about your family. I don’t know, it just reminded me that mines not around I guess.”

“I’m sorry.” Lance frowned, he wasn’t really sure what else to say, he couldn’t imagine getting through high school without his siblings, but especially his mom. From what Keith had said here or there, his mom had never been a part of his life and his Dad had left him young. Lance didn’t know much else.

“It’s okay. I have Shiro, he’s been a good brother to me,” Keith said. Lance had to stop himself from responding, “even if we’re only half brothers, he went out his way to find me once he knew I existed. I sort of, lost it when he disappeared.”

“I could imagine it would be hard.” Lance took on a more serious disposition. “That’s why I stick to cities to be honest, being alone, that would be worse for me than anything.”

“Staying at the shack might not have been the best idea,” Keith said, “but I was too lost after leaving the Police academy. I wasn’t really myself until I ran into Pidge for the first time.”

“But you found Pidge, and Hunk, and me, and now you even have Shiro back.” Lance was just trying to remind Keith, he didn’t want him to be sad anymore, he didn’t like that Keith had spent all that time wallowing when he really just needed help. To Lance’s surprise, Keith smiled and nodded quickly.

“That’s why I left before,” Keith said, “I was suddenly so happy that I had you all. I couldn’t, I felt like it was an inappropriate time to start laughing.”

“You make it sound like you were almost hysterical,” Lance said carefully.

“I was.” Keith shrugged, “I’m sure you know I don’t handle my emotions well. I, just, in front of Allura, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let myself.”

“You know,” Lance said, “I think that’s the most mature thing I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth.” Keith smacked his arm gently and Lance laughed, so Keith started to laugh too. Lance leaned on his shoulder gently, and Keith pressed his weight on him back while they looked out on the stars that seemed even closer now.

“I miss the desert.” Keith pursed his lips. “Everything is constantly moving in the desert, the sand, the tumbleweeds, the birds, the wind. Here it’s all just, stagnant.”

“I miss being warm,” Lance said, “and I miss my bed.” Keith nodded, a shiver running through him, so Lance moved the serape so that it was over his shoulders, watching another smile creepy over Keith’s face.

“Your bed was really comfortable.” Keith glanced at Lance, and Lance caught him, so now he was stuck making eye contact and Lance could see the flushed look to his face.

“Hey,” Lance mumbled, “you know there’s nothing going on with Allura and I, right?”

“I know, I was just really mad after that first thing, but you were concussed,” Keith said, “I’m sorry, I really should have apologized for it sooner.”

“It’s okay,” Lance said, “the last week and a half hasn’t exactly been easy.”

“Yeah.” Keith’s voice still sounded guilty, so Lance slid his arm around his waist, tugging Keith closer to him. They stayed like that for a while, before they both agreed they needed sleep and wandered back to their rooms together. Lance left the serape with Keith, figuring he needed it more than Lance did that night.

By the time Lance was in his bed he had a lot on his mind, the quiet ship humming underneath him had him thinking too much. It was like his head sped up all his thoughts to match the vibrating. He thought about Keith more than anything, but he was still picturing Pidge crying as she left with Shiro. Lance wasn’t sure if talking her into staying was the right thing to do, and by now, he’d missed so much work, he wasn’t sure if he could go back. Everything was much different and he fell asleep counting the ways things would probably change when he got his feet back on the desert sand. At least he might have Keith there to hold onto.

Lance was thrown right back into training the next day. Coran had taken note of just how well he shot and now he had Lance practicing with a bayard every morning for a few hours while everyone else split off to learn similar skills that were specific to what they’d be good at. The bayard wasn’t hard to get used to, what was hard was the way it turned into a different gun everytime Lance picked it up. It was hard to shoot long range targets with what was basically a laser pistol, but Coran was pushing him to do it, so he did. Lance sort of wondered if this would even transfer well to a gun from Earth.

“I don’t know why it keeps changing,” Pidge said. Her and Coran were looking at the internal workings of the bayard in its passive mode.

“Some of the old texts about Voltron and the Paladins talk about this happening if a Paladin is in flux himself. Are you in flux Lance?” Coran gave him a bit of a look, it was obvious that Allura and Coran talked often and didn’t really keep anything from each other. Including what was going on between Lance and Keith. Lance was regretting confiding in Allura, but he’d told Keith and Hunk about Allura’s crush, so he’d sort of gotten her back.

“I don’t know,” Lance said, “I don’t think so? I’m pretty calm lately, antsy, but so is Pidge and her bayard’s fine.”

“Maybe it’s reacting strangely to changing hands. Allura said these were owned only by the original Paladins before right?” Pidge was looking up at Coran who towered over her at her desk which was covered in devices she’d collected from places on the ship that she was determined to analyze. Coran had to poke through her desk every now and again because he’d discover something crucial was missing.

“Perhaps,” Coran shifted his lips back and forth so that his moustache would wiggle, “let’s try with something other than basic targets. The sentries we have Keith training on might help it even out. It’ll learn it’s purpose.”

“Why do you talk about it like it’s a person?” Lance asked, but Coran just turned and went for the door telling him to follow. Pidge kept close behind them, her computer in one hand as she did a few things on it. Lance couldn’t believe she managed to use it even while she walked.

They got down to the training hall where Keith had his bayard in hand, a long sword formed from the grip. Lance watched him moving against the sentries, the huge robots coming down on him were easily batted away or cut in half. Keith’s movements were all smooth, flowing in circles like he’d fought this way his entire life. It was as Keith turned like a top to slice another sentry in half that Lance could picture it, the thin recruit that the Sheriff had brought in with Shiro on that training exercise while Lance was still in the academy.

Lance stared, his mouth agape, as he pictured Keith taking down his classmates. His hair had been cropped short, Lance remembered his classmates complaining that Keith was cocky for someone who’d looked so much younger than them. All of it flooded back in a second, but then Coran was smacking his arm and pushing him into the training room as Keith’s program stopped.

Keith smiled at him briefly when he’d dropped his shirt. He’d been wiping the sweat off his face, but Lance didn’t have time to really interact with him, Coran ushered him out and started the program right away.

“Wait, what am I doing?” Lance looked up at the control room, but a sentry popped up across from him. Lance tugged out his bayard, only to have it turn into a long hunting rifle. This wasn’t going to go well. He shot at the sentry, but it was moving to quick, so Lance wound up deactivating the bayard and dodging before he tried to open it again, this time he got a pistol, that was better. He shot the sentry down, and the next sentry that popped up even though it was across the room.

This went on fine for a bit, but then the program paused, long enough for Lance to deactivate his bayard again. “Coran, what did that prove?”

A sentry came at him from behind. Lance yelped and tossed it over his head, using it’s momentum against it. He drew the bayard again, getting an alien version of what felt like a military grade rifle. He shot the sentry and took out the next four this way before the program paused again. Lance was getting the idea, or at least he thought he might, deactivating and then reactivating his bayard, something different again, a revolver that made him feel like he was a sheriff in a TV show with a gun that was way too large.

Nothing changed, no matter how many sentries came at Lance, the bayard was different anytime it went off and on, sometimes if there was a long enough pause between shots it would change. He was pretty certain Coran was going to leave him there like that until Pidge came over the intercom yelling for everyone to meet in the bridge.

When they got there, Pidge already had a 3D model up on the hologram display, showing it off to Allura who was taking in everything Pidge was saying very intently. Pidge and Allura gathered them around the display, still exchanging information with each other as Coran join in on their conversation. It didn’t take long looking at the display to know that this was Zarkon’s underground facility in the desert they were looking at, and suddenly everything began to click into place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! This one is a lil' longer than my others! I hope you're all enjoying this, I'm just finishing up the last chapter of this fic, I'm super excited about the conclusion!!!


	8. Chapter 8

The plan was simple, sneak in and then draw Zarkon out with a distraction so that they could sneak out with the prisoners then the castle could really attack the facility. That was if you didn’t factor in the numerous live guards, sentries that acted as secondary guards, the vast computer system that Pidge created a virus for, or the fact that prisoners were held in the very lowest level of the facility that only one of the three main elevators actually reached.

Luckily, Shiro’s memory was coming back in bits and pieces from his time in the lab. He cryptically warned everyone to avoid the third level, which apparently is where they did experimentation. Lance cringed thinking about them removing Shiro’s arm, Keith cringed at the same time.

They were in the pod heading back into the atmosphere now, all of them quiet and sober as they descended on Earth. Allura, Keith, Lance, Shiro, and Pidge were heading in with some device Pidge had rigged up to make the pod invisible. They weren’t even sure if it would work on the robotic sentries, but here they were, barrelling in and relying on hope. Lance trusted Pidge, but he was scared, he had to admit it.

Hunk and Coran started the distraction, loud blasts coming from outside which made everyone in the pod tremble slightly. They all looked back at Shiro, who was shaking the worst, but managed to tell them just to ignore it, setting aside his own fear. There was a quiet moment when they slipped into the single entrance of the underground bunker, Allura piloting the pod easily through the narrow opening before any guards were coming out. They fell into it from there, as if slipping inside a vent in the desert.

Lance swallowed, Keith pressed closer to him, and then the pod stopped, in a crevice of the facility, allowing them time to sneak out. Allura grabbed her weapon, the sleek baton tight in her hand as her and Shiro led the team out of the little pod, all wearing stiff Altean armor. Each had a bayard, Lance’s was still acting up, but they moved swiftly, and went their separate directions. Lance followed Pidge as he looked back at Keith following Allura and Shiro, Keith was looking back at him.

Pidge led them through tight hallways, ones that were narrow were lesser used, but they made Lance uncomfortable. He felt boxed in, but that was probably because they were underground. He’d thought this would be fine, he liked being in the ocean despite how vast and terrifyingly alone he could feel in it. This was different, this was opaque and ready for collapse, in the ocean, he’d at least been able to see Keith longer.

They reached an elevator, taking it down to a control room. Lance’s body ached from training, but he was alive and ready to go. The sentries were on them in a moment, but Lance managed to destroy them quickly enough that the alarms weren’t triggered, allowing Pidge plenty of time to upload the virus she’d created. In a moment, the whole place shut down to emergency settings, people evacuating as if it were some type of drill they’d done a hundred times before. Lance glanced at Pidge who was digging through records now. Once they’d gotten the virus in, it was their job to go free the prisoners who’d be left to die in an actual emergency.

“No,” Pidge muttered. Lance walked over to check what she was looking at, “no, something’s wrong, there aren’t any prisoners on the first floor.”

Lance felt his blood freeze. “What?”

“There aren’t any prisoners, my family isn’t here. They were moved out four days ago, no six.” Pidge was scanning the information on her screen so quickly Lance couldn’t keep up. He looked over his shoulder instead, a wall of sentries heading in their direction.

“Shit Pidge,” Lance said, “this is a trap. We need to go.”

“What? No, I’m trying to figure out where they took the prisoners.” Pidge frowned, nearly pouting at Lance, but Lance was already shooting at the sentries making their way down the narrow hallway. Pidge unplugged, begrudgingly, and ran to an air vent. She knocked it open with her bayard and then used her weapon as a grappling hook to climb up. “Lance come on.”

“Coming.” Lance scrambled up the rope and Pidge dislodged it, leaving the sentries to shoot at the vent while they scrambled further into the dark metal shaft. It felt like a coffin, Lance holding onto Pidge tightly for fear of losing her even though they were pressed into a rather small space. Pidge paused, Lance still watching their six as she popped her laptop open. The little bit of light was just enough of a reprieve to calm Lance down.

“Okay,” Pidge said, “if we take the next right and shimmy our way down we should be fine.”

Lance nodded, rubbing the side of the vent and then went to set his hand down around the right corner. He dropped, fast and scared, his voice rising because he couldn’t control it until he hit the next vent, crashing through it onto the lower level of the base. Everything was fuzzy for a second, but Pidge’s voice caught his attention, and when he looked up, he could shee her propped inside the vent, nearing the edge slowly. He put his arms out, catching her softly.

“Thank you.” Pidge hopped out of his arms, heading in the direction her map was telling her. Lance looked towards the elevator, but it seemed like Pidge had already ruled that out, which seemed fair to Lance, if Zarkon’s intention was to trap them, that was the easiest way. Lance watched Pidge’s back, glancing over his shoulder at her occasionally, just to make sure he hadn’t lost her.

“Where are we headed right now?” Lance turned to look over Pidge’s shoulder at her laptop again, the armor they were both wearing looked and felt strange to him now, but at least they both had helmets.

“We’re going to try and meet up with Shiro and the others. Once we have them, there seems to be some kind of hanger a few floors down, if we can get there, we can probably find something to help us get out.” Pidge sounded mono-tone and confident about what she was saying, and despite her age, Lance was willing to trust her. Pidge had proved herself smarter than him at this point anyway.

They walked quietly, not meeting any sentries thanks to Pidge’s laptop, but something down the hall was stirring, loud and whirring as they neared whenever Pidge was leading them. The hall started to open up, getting wider and wider like the halls of the castle often did, but everything down here felt dank and strangely dark despite being lit well enough to work in. All of the metal walls seemed to clang and slowly bear down on them, and Lance couldn’t stop imagining the whole thing caving in. He’d never get to have a clear conversation with Keith.

When they got into the large store room, the commotion they’d been hearing was splayed out in front of them, the sentries chasing after Keith along with a few soldiers as he batted them away with his sword. There was a slash in his good arm, Keith holding his dominant arm awkwardly against his side as he tried to back away from everyone following him. Lance’s bayard was in his hand, he squeezed it, trying to pray for it to be right when it activated. He took a breath, turned it on, and found himself with a little pistol.

“Mierda.” He growled, turning the bayard off, but it stayed glowing, and now it wouldn’t switch at all. Pidge was calling to him, trying to tell him to help, but Lance had no weapon. He was kicking himself for listening to Coran and Allura when they made him leave his sidearm behind. Keith crashed onto the ground, the sentries all converging on him as he shot his sword up.

Lance felt hot tears pressing out of his eyes, smacking the bayard a few times. He bit his lip hard, and ran towards Keith and then sentires with Pidge calling after him. Keith was always rash, Lance could be rash, that was what he was going to do to make it through this. There was no way he was going to let Keith get hurt. Just like that, the bayard came to life again, turning itself into a sleek rifle that felt like it was sized for Lance. He whipped it up the whole gun glowing as he shot two of the sentries before he shoulder checked one of the soldiers, who luckily went down unconscious right away, because she wasn’t wearing a helmet.

“Lance?” Keith’s voice was quiet, his bayard deactivating as the second soldier picked up her teammate and ran, but Pidge tied them up with her bayard and knocked the second one out. Lance shot the last sentry, and it fell with a clatter.

“Keith, Keith are you okay, why are you alone?” Lance picked him up, supporting his head as he started to get Keith into a fireman’s carry. He needed to get them out, and now Pidge was there next to them, trying to find an escape route.

“Distraction.” Keith coughed, “I let Shiro and Allura get away.”

Lance was almost mad, but he stopped himself. “Okay, we’ll get out of here, don’t worry.” The doors on the far end of the storage room slammed shut. One of the soldiers had gotten up, and none of them had noticed. Lance watched her pull an alarm, the sirens shrieking the way the hover bike had the night this all started. “We’ll get out,” Lance said.

Pidge looked at them, shaking her head slightly. She looked like she did the first time Lance had ever seen her, which was at the almost three-hour funeral for Shiro after he’d first gone missing. He remembered how she’d looked there with her mother, standing before the casket, and now she looked the same. Keith was making a noise that sounded like a groan, and Lance carefully pulled his helmet off him.

“Lance, I,” Keith said. Lance shook his head, carefully laying Keith down and picking up his bayard again. It turned into the same rifle, and he took out the sentries that were coming for them. He watched the injured soldiers disappear past the horde of robots coming at them.

“You’ll never be able to hold them off for long enough.” Pidge had tears streaking down her face, but Lance kept shooting. The ground underneath them felt cold on his knees, even through his armor he could feel it. Everything was dank, and far too quiet for a fire fight despite the shrieking alarm. He shot down six sentries, but his hands were starting to shake, and it took more shots for him to actually hit his mark. He couldn’t focus on his breathing enough, and more were coming every minute. He didn’t hear the ground creak, he just felt it shake. It couldn’t be the base around him. It was just him shaking like a leaf.

“Lance.” Keith was holding onto his thigh, Lance had himself propped up on his knees to stabilize himself. When Lance looked down at Keith’s soft face, the ground was creaking and cracking under them, ice rising from underneath Keith.

“What the fuck?” Lance stared, his bayard glowing brightly before turning back into its inactive state. His mouth fell open when the floor gave out under them, and they were falling into a pair of jaws, their bodies cascading over the throat of a great beast before they landed against a wall. The beast righted itself, it roared at the sentries and crushed them under one giant paw and Lance could hear a low voice, a woman’s voice, telling him to get in the pilot’s seat.

“What is this?” Pidge was holding onto Keith, his head in her lap. “Lance? Where are you going? Is that a pilot’s chair? What the hell is happening?”

“I don’t know,” Lance said, “but I think we just made a friend.”

“What?” Pidge gripped Keith tighter and Lance sat down in the seat, the controls blinking to life. All of them made sense right away, like it was innate for Lance to fly whatever this thing was. He shot the sentries with a beam that was bright and when it faded they were in a block of ice, his hands shaking still as he did the same thing to the ceiling.

“Pidge, where are Shiro and Allura?” Lance looked back at her over the pilot’s chair, and she whipped her computer open. It only took her a few moments to shout a level and a general location. Lance flew the lion, or what he was guessing was a lion from the displays, up to the next level, crashing through the frozen floor. Shiro and Allura were two floors up, so he quickly repeated the procedure, cracking through the floor until he was able to crawl the lion up to the level Shiro and Allura should be on.

He found himself face-to-face with an alien, tall and purple, his robes red and long with Allura slumped over one of his shoulders. Pidge was next to him, staring at the alien as well, but neither of them seemed to know what to do.

“What is that?” Pidge was holding onto the chair that Lance was sitting in, pressing himself back as he ground his teeth.

“Whoever it is, I don’t like him.” Lance gripped his controls, trying to figure out what he could do without hurting Allura in the process. Like a shot, Shiro came up behind the alien, his metal hand meeting with the back of his head. Shiro looked just as beat up as Keith, his mouth covered in blood. The alien dropped Allura, and just like that she shot up, like she’d been faking unconsciousness all along.

Allura pointed at the lion, which opened its jaw to let her and Shiro hobble in, supporting each other. They got into the cockpit, both staring at Lance before Shiro hobbled to Keith, checking his pulse.

“How did you get the blue lion?” Allura looked around and at the seat, blinking. She looked wild, holding onto whatever she could because Lance was getting ready to take off again.

“It saved us. Like, it came to Lance like he called for it. Almost…” Pidge made a face, the alien was holding a black bayard and aiming at them, so Lance didn’t want to stick around. He let the lion fall back the way they’d come, looking at Pidge who was already finding them a route. “Take out the elevator shaft, if you do that, and wait for the elevator to fall, it’ll be big enough for you to get out.”

“Got it.” Lance shot out the elevator shaft with the laser on the tail on the lion, the elevator shaft falling open. They watched the actual elevator fall next, and then Lance wriggled the lion into the cave-like shaft. It was clear that they’d built around the elevator shaft, rather than digging the whole place in. He landed against the wall for a moment, before he started to run the lion up the wall.

“Zarkon’s fighters are behind us, look out.” Allura was pointing at something on the screen, and Lance nodded, dodging the shots easily, the lion working with his every move. He blasted the very end of the shaft, opening the tall room that the elevator used to be in. “Good shot,” Allura said, directing him straight up into the sky.

They were surrounded by desert for a moment, and then they were engulfed in the fighting that had been going on between Coran, Hunk, and Zarkon’s fleet, the small fighter jets, which looked a lot like the hover bikes, circled them as soon as they met the edge of the atmosphere.

“Don’t worry about those. They can’t break the atmosphere, you can.” Shiro paused and looked at Allura, “he can right.”

“Yes, just step up the speed.” She hit a few things on the controls for Lance, and he punched it, going faster than he’d ever imagined he could, even in a lion-shaped space ship.

They broke the atmosphere, and everything around them seemed to float, even the lion controlled different. Allura activated a homing device, and Lance followed the controls easily to the Castle of Lions, the tall white haul peaking out behind the moon. He flew the lion into the lower, right hangar, looking around the familiar metal walls that seemed more inviting than they ever had before.

Allura was out of the lion already, and Lance was helping Shiro pick Keith up and bring him to a healing pod. Keith was out cold, but he was breathing, and Allura was calling Coran back as they stripped the red armour off of Keith. He was in a plain white suit, skin tight, like the one they all wore. Carefully, Shiro and Lance settled him into a pod, Lance touching his cheek gently before they closed it. The pod lit up, Keith’s suite glowing softly as his hair began to float.

“Do you think this will work on a human?” Lance asked. Shiro frowned and set his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“I think it will, Coran told me it would if anything happened to any of us.” Shiro looked up at Keith in the pod, a grimace forming on his face. “He did all this just to find me.”

“You mean a lot to him.” Lance frowned, looking down at his feet. “I should have said something. That plan made me nervous from the start.”

“It’s okay Lance.” Shiro squeezed Lance’s shoulder, his hand feeling firm there for a moment. Lance turned to Shiro, looking over his face briefly, but Hunk and Pidge ran in right after that, followed closely by Coran and Allura. Coran actually congratulated him for the blue lion accepting him as her pilot, but Lance just wanted to throw up. He couldn’t feel good, there was no way while he was staring at what could be Keith’s glowing corpse. Everyone figured it out quick, each of them touching Lance gently before they walked away, Allura the last one there.

“Is he doing okay in there?” Lance asked. Allura pulled up the screen and did a few checks, her eyes scanning the information fast.

“His vitals are stabilized. He has a good chance.” She set her hand on Lance’s back, trying to lean into him, but he wouldn’t look directly at her. “Is there anything I can bring you?”

Lance thought of all the comforts of his home, the feeling of Keith being next to him in his bed, everything collapsing on him for a moment. He swallowed hard, shaking his head and Allura nodded, telling him to just ask if he needed anything. Lance’s throat felt tight as she was leaving, but he caught her before she had made it out the door.  
“Actually, there is something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little longer than the others, hope you guys didn't mind! I finished writing this fic, I just have to edit now!!!! I'm super excited to see what you all say!!!! <3 Thanks for all the support I've gotten so far!


	9. Chapter 9

“Is this a blanket?” Allura was holding up the serape and looking at it funny. Lance took it from her gently and wrapped it around his shoulders. She looked decidedly more confused, but didn’t say anything further as Lance parked himself on the little steps by Keith’s healing pod, tube, thing.

“It’s called a serape,” he said, “you’re meant to wear it, but it’s basically a blanket otherwise.”

“Do you intend to stay here until Keith wakes up?” Allura looked more concerned now, sitting down next to Lance. “Lance, it might be a few days even, you should get some rest, we’ll need you to help us rethink the plan.”

Lance shook his head, “I just want to be here for a little while.” He leaned against the pod, his body shaking because he was honestly cold. Allura frowned, her hand pressing on Lance’s shoulder for a moment before she got up. She turned the temperature up in the room before she left, but Lance didn’t really notice.

Allura came back about ten minutes later, a blanket around her shoulders and her hair down for the night. She sat next to Lance, muttering about not being able to sleep, so they moved onto the floor in front of the healing pod, talking quietly while they waited. It wasn’t too much longer that Pidge snuck in with them, leaning on Allura like she was her sister and listening to her talk. Allura was speaking about Altea now, how she used to live, Pidge fell asleep next to her eventually.

“You know,” she said, looking up at the healing pod as Shiro wandered into the room. Everyone was awake, Hunk was in the kitchen stress baking while Coran listened to him talking about machines he was working on back home. Shiro reported all this to them before Allura could go on with her story. “I always thought I would be the next blue paladin. My father was the paladin of the blue lion.”

“The lion that came to save us in Zarkon’s facility?” Lance shifted, his hands tight on the serape. Coran led Hunk into the room, talking about how Hunk needed to be away from the kitchen. Hunk wasn’t really protesting.

Allura shook her head, “no, the blue lion saved you Lance. You have to understand that, you’ve managed to resonate with the Blue lion without even piloting it before.”

“What does that mean?” Lance glanced at Keith in the pod, Pidge was awake now. He couldn’t help thinking that Keith had had something to do with it. All he’d been thinking about was getting them out of there and the blue lion just showed up.

“It means the blue lion has accepted you as it’s paladin.” Coran was standing over them now, “It’s a serious honor, that you should take, well seriously. But that also means that Zarkon had the blue lion for some reason.”

“Which isn’t a good sign. That could mean he has the others.” Allura shifted and Pidge sat up, pushing her glasses closer to her face.

“So does that mean he could have the other lions? How many are there total?” Pidge looked alert now, trying to comprehend what was going on. Coran and Allura both looked worried.

“There are five, but now we have two, the black and blue lion,” Allura said. Neither her, nor Coran looked very convinced that this was a good thing, but Lance felt a small wave of relief. Two was a good start, especially if it was possible that Zarkon didn’t have them all.

“Well,” Pidge said, “my family wasn’t in that base, so they must be using it to transport things out, maybe that’s what the blue lion was doing there in the first place?” Pidge seemed to shiver, but Allura rubbed her shoulder gently and that seemed to calm her down.

“We’ll have to find out. Odds are, if there are more lions there or if there aren’t there’s going to be information about where they went.” Shiro crossed his arms, and Hunk looked more nervous than ever.

“Are you crazy? Going back in there could mean the end. Zarkon tried to kidnap Allura remember?” Hunk looked at Allura briefly, but so did Coran in a very sad and fatherly way. Hunk was right, and Coran knew it, but there was no way that Allura would listen, Lance could tell.

“This isn’t about just us anymore.” Lance’s throat felt dry. “Even though it’s a serious risk, we have to think about every person, every family in the universe. We have to try.” Everyone stared at him, and very solemnly agreed, but no one seemed confident yet.

Coran quickly went into dad mode again, ushering Hunk and Pidge off to bed since they were both so stressed. Allura and Shiro walked off together, Lance didn’t see where, but he stood up, intending to go back to his room. He stopped in front of Keith’s healing pod, looking up at him. His face looked far more peaceful now, his pain must have subsided.

Lance jumped at a loud beeping sound, the control panel for the pod rising from the ground as the door opened. He stepped back, and then immediately leaned forward to catch Keith as he stumbled out of the pod. Keith sank in his arms, feeling like a rock at first, but he picked himself up, looking at the serape still hooked over Lance’s arms as he drew Keith into his chest, allowing Keith to use him for support.

Keith looked up, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape. His hand slid down Lance’s forearm, the other one on his chest, just holding himself. He was shivering, just a little bit, and Lance instinctively wrapped the serape around the both of them a little tighter. Lance stammered, trying to make something come out of his mouth with Keith looking at him like that, his grip around Keith’s waist becoming the only thing he could manage to keep steady as he shook. But Keith seemed unaffected, focused on what he was doing now.

He slid one hand up to the back of Lance’s neck, carefully pulling him down into a warm kiss, which snapped Lance out of his stupor. Lance kissed Keith back, his hands settling on his waist as he held him close, his eyes closing to the sound of Keith humming softly, his nails scratching the back of his neck gently. They melted into each other for a while, just enjoying the touch and the feel of the other’s body.

Lance panted softly when Keith pulled away, his head racing, but only one thing could come out of his mouth. “We decided we wanted to save the universe while you were in the pod. Even at the risk of personal loss.”

Keith blinked, slow and he seemed to contemplate what Lance had said. He took a wobbly step back to really look at Lance, and Lance could feel his stomach churn for a moment, because he was facing the one person he was worried about losing the most and he’d admitted to being okay with putting the whole team in danger for the sake of something they couldn’t even comprehend.

“Protect and serve, right?” Keith said. Lance perked up and Keith kept his eyes locked on Lance’s, “we’re cops, well, you and Shiro are, or were, and I was going to be once…. But, I’m in Lance, you followed me into this, I’ll follow you out.”

Lance kissed Keith, Lance pulled him closer and he kissed him hard, his body no longer shaking in the cold, because he had Keith there to warm him up. Keith’s hands went to his face, gentle as he nudged Lance into a better position. They were quiet, kissing like their lives depended on it, and holding onto each other.

When they pulled away again, Keith smiled, and Lance couldn’t help smiling back. If they were in this together, things were going to be much better. Keith’s smiled turned into a smirk. “Besides, someone has to keep you from getting so wrapped up in helping other people you forget yourself.”

“And someone has to keep you from doing rash things on a motorcycle that could get both the people on it killed,” Lance quipped. They both laughed and pulled away from each other, standing more normally, giving each other distance while Keith learned to stand all over again. The healing pod apparently made his legs feel very strange.

Shiro came back first, but Allura was behind him in a way that made Lance think they might have tried to intentionally look like they hadn’t been together. Coran was there next, checking the pod out and then Keith as he hugged Shiro. Pidge followed Hunk into the room, both of them covered in grease and soot from something they’d been doing in one of the labs. Lance grinned and Keith got hugged by everyone as they all told him how happy they were he was okay.

Everyone finally went to sleep, even Keith and Lance going their separate ways, but they managed to kiss one more time before Keith sped off to his room. It was only about fifteen minutes after that Lance heard Keith sneak into his room, crawling into bed and making a little noise to signal that he was there. Keith wrapped himself around Lance like a koala, but Lance didn’t mind, throwing an arm around his shoulders to pull him close. Neither of them shook, and they slept with the serape over their arms, their breathing in sync while the rest of the ship moved quietly around them.

When Lance woke, he pressed himself closer to the soft smell of Keith even though he still smelled like whatever had been in the healing pod. It was strange, but it was getting more and more faint as he pressed his face into Keith’s messy hair.

“Good morning,” Keith mumbled. Lance jumped, and Keith turned to face him, chuckling quietly. “Sorry, did I startle you?”

“I didn’t realize you were awake,” Lance said. Somehow they’d moved in the night so that they were spooning, Lance with his arms tight around Keith’s middle. He hugged him, and Keith smiled, his arm sliding under Lance’s head so he could tug him into a kiss. It felt oddly close for someone Lance had only just been honest with about his feelings, but Keith felt very different than anyone he’d ever been with. Keith leaned into every one of Lance’s movements, his hands slid over Lance’s skin like he was surveying it, and he even bumped their noses together like he was trying to get Lance’s attention. “Y’know, I remember you from the academy now.”

Keith paused and blinked at Lance, “we were at the academy at the same time?”

“Yeah,” Lance said, “you and Shiro were brought into my class for hand-to-hand and swat training.” It felt awkward for a moment, Keith staring at Lance as if he was trying to dig up a memory from a lifetime ago. Lance had only been a cop about six months, so the academy felt very recent to him. It must have been more distant for Keith considering everything he went through when Shiro disappeared. “Ah,” Lance stammered a little bit, “sorry if I brought up something uncomfortable.”

“No.” Keith said quickly. “No it’s just, I only did that for underclassmen.” Lance stared at him and then he couldn’t help the way he glanced between Keith’s chest and his own thinking about how slender Keith’s muscles were.

“I….” Lance started to laugh, his shoulders shaking as he fell into full-bellied hysterics, while Keith blinked at him. “Sorry, I just can’t believe I didn’t realize. I didn’t even think you were old enough to drink yet.” It all made sense though, keith and Shiro were probably the same age.

“I don’t look that young!” Keith shifted, laughing now as well. He kissed lance, and Lance let him crawl onto his lap, the two of them locked together for a bit, Keith’s soft hair falling on Lance’s face as they kissed. Both of them paused, and Keith pressed their foreheads together.

“You do honestly look that young.” Lance said. Keith faked a groan and got out of bed, Lance following as Allura’s voice came on the speakers overhead. They both froze a moment, but they relaxed when she only asked everyone to meet on the bridge. Keith and Lance got dressed and made their way there, talking about how they hoped Hunk had made breakfast and not Coran.

When they were all standing around the controls, they all yelled back and forth at each other for a long time, Coran taking diligent notes because he would occasionally pause everything to read out some of the better ideas. Nobody wanted to leave Zarkon behind on Earth, not even Allura, but they couldn’t deny needing the rest of the lions. Maybe the best thing to do was to leave, and hopefully Zarkon would follow.

They found themselves staring down a flood of stars that didn’t seem to have any suggestions either. Lance stared out at them, Keith standing near him as he watched Allura open up a hologram.

“Could we locate the other lions first? Even if we don’t go get them, if we know they’re most likely not in Zarkon’s hands that makes our job easier.” Keith crossed his arms, rubbing the back of his neck. Lance was stressed, they were all stressed, and Pidge looked like she might scream if leaving Earth, even temporarily was brought up again.

“I can try.” Allura sighed, pulling the hologram so that it would turn into a scattered map of the stars. She frowned, her finger tips going to the controls. She took a deep breath, one in, one out, and when she opened her eyes they glowed with the light of the ship’s systems, all of her energy seeming to pour over the room and the hologram lit up, bringing two lonely points to life with yellow markers that looked like pyramids.

“What was that?” Shiro looked mildly terrified, because when Allura came out of it, she almost looked like she’d blacked out. She took a moment to breathe before she lit up, spinning excitedly towards Coran who looked almost, proud? Lance couldn’t figure it out, but this seemed like some kind of alien right of passage.

“I did it! The ship actually listened to me!” Allura dove into Coran’s arms and they had a moment of squealing together before they both straightened up, Coran walking into the hologram.

“These are the locations of the Green and Yellow lions,” Coran said. Pidge, Hunk, and Lance all looked bored already, and either Keith and Shiro were good at hiding it, or they were honestly interested in the long explanation Coran dove into about the lions and Voltron and-

“Coran! Does Zarkon have them or not?” Keith was obviously just good at hiding how impatient he was, and Lance couldn’t help the way he smiled at him. Apparently it was enough to make Keith blush too, which was kind of nice, but only for Lance.

“Oh yes, sorry, I mean, no, he doesn’t. From what I can tell, they’re still dormant, their shields are not even activated.” Coran clicked through a few things, and the ship around them started to come to life. “In fact, something about the quintessence in the blue lion must be reawakening the castle. We could be there and back with two more lions in a tick.”

“We can’t leave though! I can get the information I need from that base and we can rescue my brother and my father from Zarkon.” Pidge shook all over, she had been for a while, and now that Allura wasn’t running the ship, she went and put an arm around Pidge.

“Don’t worry Pidge, we aren’t going anywhere yet,” she said, “not the castle anyway, we might be the only thing keeping Zarkon from moving. But that doesn’t mean the blue lion has to stay.”

Keith perked up, looking at Lance quickly, and then everyone was looking at him. “What?” Lance asked, “what could I do?”

“You’re the only one who can pilot the blue lion.” Allura was firm and still holding onto Pidge. “But I have a suspicion that you’re not the only one here capable of being a paladin.”

“Wait, I know we said that we’d do the whole paladins of Voltron thing after this, but I don’t know how to pilot that thing. I was only in flight school for a month before they kicked me out and told me I wasn’t good enough.” Lance waved his hands a bit, there was no way he could pilot the lion on his own. Allura had been there before, that was the only way.

“Lance, the blue lion chose you, and I think that the yellow lion belongs to Hunk,” Allura said, “Coran agrees.”

“Wait me? I don’t know, I’ve puked every time you guys have put me in something that flies.” Hunk shrunk back, and Lance shook his head.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to just put Hunk in the blue lion? He’s actually a pilot.” Lance wrapped his arms around his chest, thinking over the brief time he spent in pilot training with Hunk, He’d dropped out too, but Lance had been removed.

“Shiro and Keith were both in the air force, wouldn’t that make the most sense?” Pidge asked. Lance whirled around to Keith who looked calm a moment like he was trying to tread carefully.

“I think what Allura is saying is that the blue lion chose Lance, it has to be him.” Keith looked at Lance and smiled briefly, but Lance felt oddly betrayed. Keith had been a pilot too? So he was the only one without any training, all he could do was aim a gun well.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Allura walked back over to the control center, flicking a few things. “If we can get another lion, the ship might come online enough that we can wake up our weapons systems.”

Lance held tightly onto his right arm with his left, kneading his own bicep a little bit and wishing he’d worn his jacket. The castle felt loud around him for the first time since he’d been there, with all it’s big halls, it was hard to find a noise. All he could hear now was a thrumming while they all planned for this around him. Sending Hunk and Lance off to find the yellow lion, Pidge needing to go with for the green after that. This all felt too big for him, so he just receded, staying quiet while they put things together for him.

“Maybe I should go with Hunk and Lance.” Keith was looking at Lance like he was concerned. Lance didn’t look at him, instead shaking his head firmly, trying to wake himself up the rest of the way.

“No, we don’t need you. I’m a fine pilot. They’ll need you here.” Lance glanced at Keith, and he could see the brief moment, the pain that slid across his face only long enough for Lance to notice it, and maybe Shiro did too. To Lance’s surprise, though, Shiro quickly agreed with him and it was decided that Keith would stay behind while Lance and Hunk went to get the yellow lion.


	10. Chapter 10

After adding some security measures to the castle just in case, Lance and Hunk got in the blue lion quietly, Keith watching them go with a little wave. Lance waved back, his bones shaking slightly, but he grinned, trying to look confident in himself. By the time they were in the Blue lion, all he could do was give Hunk a not-very reassuring look before they took off, the castle launching them on their way with the rockets in the paws of the lion moving them along after.

“Dude are you okay?” Hunk asked. It had been dead silent, Lance too focused on what he was doing to pilot to be able to say anything.

“I’m fine.” Lance snapped out of it, watching the board in front of him, technicolor and vivid as he smiled a bit at Hunk. “I just wanted to be sure we were on the right course.”

“No, but I mean, are you okay? Like, you’ve been spending all this time trying to woo Keith and it seems like you guys were close and then when the whole pilot thing came up you cracked.” Hunk continued to ramble a bit more, Lance’s mouth turning into a hard line.   
“Hunk, I’m fine. Keith and I are fine. I never even told you I was trying anything with him anyway.” Lance jumped at a noise, the lion telling him to avoid a rock, asteroid, whatever, something big and rockie and floating in space. He grabbed the handles, and flipped back to what he’d been doing, narrowly avoiding whatever it was that might have hit them. Hunk was clinging to Lance’s seat, his hand clamped over his mouth.

“You didn’t have to tell me Lance,” Hunk said, hiccuping and trying not to throw up, “I know you’re freaked out because everyone dumped a lot on your shoulders back there, but you know you didn’t get kicked out of flight school for being a bad pilot.”

“Hunk, this isn’t the time, okay?” Lance jerked the lion around another object, now, stepping on and dodging asteroids as he went. The lion’s controls seemed to change again, but Lance was barely keeping up as it was, so he didn’t really noticed. When they settled, Lance was able to keep up with what he was doing better, hopping along and dodging in and out of the rocks while Hunk tried his hardest not to blow chunks.

“But Lance we need you and from the way Keith looked at us when we were leaving today, he really needs you too.” Hunk paused, his eyes training on the planet they were now nearing. They’d been sent through a wormhole to get there, and Lance had never been so terrified in his life, that was until Hunk started to try and give him advice about Keith.

Lance was still dodging asteroids, a belt wrapping the planet that had him hopping from rock to rock, the lion’s controls now evened out in front of him. Everything was different colors, he was only just noticing it, but it seemed like the lion was helping him be able to tell the buttons apart. He chewed his lips, now flying into the atmosphere of the strange blue planet. He was able to cruise a bit now, the lion seeming to take over as they started their descent.

“I just,” Lance said, “I don’t want to be useless.”

“You aren’t, don’t worry buddy.” Hunk patted him on the head and laughed, the two of them sharing a stupid look. Lance muttered an old prayer in Spanish, thanking his mother’s god that Hunk was in this with him. And so was Keith, who’d been hurt, but he threw himself into things with Lance without questioning Lance’s judgement.

He focused on his task again, obviously the lion trusted him, his eyes scanning along the technicolor board for a moment. Lance found quickly they were color coded now, and things that used to have strange Altean words had images on them. He hummed softly, looking up a bit and wondering just how sentient this lion was. The only thing that would make it more comfortable at this point would be a steering wheel.

They shot out over the large body of water, so like an ocean, but the yellow lion was on the green land they could see out in front of them. There was nothing particularly different about this planet, it felt so much like Earth, but Lance could tell there was some difference as they flew over the thicket of trees. The blue lion was still directing them, Coran’s voice now coming over the comm line to tell them they were almost there. Hunk and Lance both jumped, the voice coming through their helmets in a rather jarring crackle.

“The yellow lion should be in a cave down there,” Coran said, “we’ll more than likely lose communication once you’re underground, be safe.”

“Thanks Coran,” Lance said and flicked a switch so that the lion could guide them easily into the cave. It didn’t take long, getting down to the cavern where the colossal yellow lion sat quietly. Lance stopped, the blue lion landing in front of the yellow so he could let Hunk out. Just as Allura said, the moment Hunk was in its space it came to life, allowing Hunk inside. This was the calmest thing they’d done since they got to the castle of lions, turning to leave the cave with Hunk following him.

“We have the lion,” Lance said. Coran’s voice crackled over the comm again, but Lance didn’t catch it, instead he caught the sight of fighter planes in the distance, the same sickening colors of the inside of Zarkon’s facility on Earth. The blue lion took the brunt of the first hit, the cockpit spinning with Lance gripping the controls tightly. Hunk was yelling over the comm, but all Lance could hear was the pounding in his head.

“Lance what’s happening?” Coran’s voice was loud, and he could hear scuffling in the background as he righted his lion in time to see the planes come down on the yellow lion.

“Hunk!” He shot towards them, the laser on the tail of the lion catching a wing and sending a plane careening into the ground. A few of the planes turned on him, pulling away from the yellow lion as Lance took their attention. He flew higher, dragging them up with him, but his lion was faster than the fighters, his hands shaking as he kept trying to get ahold of Hunk on the comm.

“I’m okay!” Hunk’s voice was clear, and as Lance turned back towards him, shooting down another plane as Hunk popped up and took out two more. “Just, feeling like my stomach might flip.”

“You can’t puke now Hunk!” Lance got hit again, sending the blue lion sailing into the trees. His head hit something, the throbbing heat pulsing through his skull for a moment before Lance felt himself go out despite his fighting.

Lance sucked in a hard breath, his eyes opening wide to the sound of Keith’s voice over the comm. “Lance, Lance! You have you be okay, Lance come on!” Keith sounded so desperate, but Lance’s head still wasn’t working well enough to respond. His eyes blinked open, looking over the controls of the blue lion, his hands slowly falling to his thighs as he tried to listen to what Keith was saying now. “Lance please, you have to be okay, Lance.”

“I’m here.” Lance’s voice was gruff and low, his eyes open just a slit as he got his hands back on the controls. Keith audibly gasped on the other line, his voice strangled as he seemed to be struggling for the words.

“Lance, are you hurt?” Keith sounded hopeful and relieved, but the sounds of the fire fight above him were starting to drown out all of Keith’s words. The last thing he caught was, “Lance please come back to me.”

He shook himself off, getting the blue lion up in the air again and flew directly for Hunk and the other fighter planes. Lance was focused now, the ice laser hitting a plane and bringing it down like a rock in a pond. Hunk was on the comm, thanking him and yelling about how happy he was that Lance was okay. They took out the rest of the fighters, it wasn’t hard once Lance knew he was supposed to be ready to fight.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” There was anxiety in Hunk’s voice, the two of them quickly headed out of the atmosphere again, hoping the fighter pilots were just like the ones on Earth and that couldn’t follow them into space. It was quiet for a while, the wormhole opening up in front of them before they had to fly another forty minutes back to the castle, back to Earth.

“Lance,” Keith’s voice was quiet, and different, Keith was only talking to Lance on the comm, the team couldn’t hear them. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.” Lance’s voice cracked, he could feel the tears sliding down his cheeks, but he was focused on the flight. When he got back, Keith was waiting for him in the hangar, his eyes wide as Lance nearly stumbled down the ramp. All the pain waited until he was back at the castle, his limbs sore and his hands burning from gripping the controls.

“Oh my god,” Keith mumbled. His hands went straight for Lance’s helmet, carefully tugging it off him.That was the first time Lance noticed the blood, it was matted in his hair and running down the side of his face as Keith wrapped an arm around his waist. “Lance what did you do? You said you weren’t hurt.”

“I didn’t-” Lance could see the anger rolling off of Keith, it wasn’t that fire that he had when Lance first met him, all the fear and desperation wrapped up. This was worry and pain, his jaw locked and his brow furrowed because Lance was hurt. “I mean, I didn’t know that I was.”

Keith relaxed, patting the side of Lance’s face down with his sleeve. “Okay, okay, come on.”

He brought Lance to his room, sat him down on the bed and helped him wipe the blood clean from his face and hair with a warm rag. No one bothered them, the rest of the team rallied without them so they could work out next steps. Keith’s hands were gentle, stroking Lance’s cheeky once he was done and letting Lance lean into him.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Lance mumbled, and Keith tried to say something, but Lance cut him off, “no, not flying, I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’m just a cop who’s probably lost his job by now, so really I’m just a person Keith. You and Shiro, and Hunk and Pidge, you all have a reason to be here. I don’t know why the blue lion would choose someone so unqualified.”

“Unqualified?” Keith was calm, but he huffed and pulled Lance into a chaste kiss, “Lance, you’re the bravest person I’ve ever met.”

Lance stared at Keith. He couldn’t really help not believing him at all, but Keith straightened up. He straightened up like he was about to give Lance a lecture, his face hard and shoulders squared. Keith wasn’t holding onto Lance anymore, he was instead sliding his arms along Lance’s, his hands finding his palms and he started rubbing small circles into them.

“Lance, you trekked out into the desert only to get shot at by some guys in a jeep and didn’t even lose your head. You came out into the desert with us only to be chased down by two mind controlled people on some kind of alien hoverbikes, and you managed to pull me away from Shiro even though you could have left me there.” Keith held up a hand when Lance tried to say he wouldn’t have left him there, he wouldn’t have left anyone there, and just kept going. He listed every little thing Lance had done since he met him, that to Lance sounded just like another stupid thing he’d done, but Keith made it sound so much better.

“Keith, Keith,” Lance mumbled, Keith kept talking. “Keith, stop.”

“No, I’m not going to stop until you-” Keith finally cut off when Lance kissed him, his lips quickly reacting against Lance’s. Lance pressed him back into the bed, Keith slid his hands along the bodysuit that Lance was still wearing. They coiled together, lying in Lance’s bed with their legs tangled up together. Lance had his head on Keith’s chest, and Keith was playing gently with his hair.

“Do you get it now?” Keith’s voice was low. Lance still felt the pangs of insecurity in his chest, but he nodded and let Keith start talking about other things. It was harder for him to worry when he could run his fingers over Keith’s soft shirt and listen to him ramble about what happened while Hunk and Lance had been gone. Apparently Allura had decided that Pidge would fly the green lion and Keith would fly the red, putting Shiro in the black lion.

Keith and Lance were worried about Pidge, this was the first time they’d talked about it directly, and the more each of them talked, the more it seemed to Lance like there was a calm wrapping them up. They had a blanket falling over them, something that was familiar and comfortable as Keith’s blunt nails ran slowly over Lance’s scalp. Their conversation only died out when Lance fell asleep, feeling secure there in Keith’s arms.


	11. Chapter 11

Lance woke to the sound of Keith’s quiet breathing. He shifted, sat up, kissed Keith’s soft lips and carefully crawled out of bed. The shower felt nicer than anything he’d had in a long time and in their new found comfort, Keith wandered into the bathroom to brush his teeth while Lance finished off. He still made sure he had a towel on him, and wrapped himself in the robe before Keith could catch a look at anything.

Keith was bent over the sink anyway, his shirt off as he barely washed his face. There was a bit of bickering between him and Lance which got Keith to use Lance’s face wash instead of just water. Keith hadn’t been as dirty as Lance, but Keith seemed content to let Lance ramble about pores and rambling about pores made Lance keep his calm.

They paused in front of the door, exchanging a quick look before Lance bent down to kiss Keith. It was soft and grounding, and when they pulled away they headed out the door with their heads up. They were ready. They were a good team.

It took a few more days to collect the rest of the lions, Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, and Allura coming up with a good plan on how to get Zarkon off of Earth. This plan was much better, form Voltron and wave it in front of him until he followed, hopefully giving them a chance to destroy his facility after. They were all a tad bit uneasy about the Galra that might be inside when it happened, but at this point, this was war and Shiro reminded them what that meant. Allura and Coran’s faces did a better job of showing just what it meant.

There was only one problem. Once they had all the lions, they found themselves beyond Jupiter, trying to form into a giant robot that none of them really understood. They stopped on Pluto, trying to literally stack themselves into the correct position, but that was more comical than anything else.

“The bonds with your lions needs to be strong.” Allura was explaining it over and over again, as best she could for them, in the simplest terms and the most complicated, but nothing worked. Instead they found themselves flying in sync a lot and yelling at each other. It gave Lance a good opportunity to sit there and memorize the controls, which made him feel better about flying.

“Okay, it’s been six days,” Keith said, “there’s got to be something better we can do.” He was leaning against the wall of the common room, still in his armor because no one wanted to give up at this point. They were all ready to go all of the time.

“Trial by fire? We need something to fight, got any big monsters you can release on the surface with us Coran? I think we could handle Mothman.” Lance smirked. It earned him a chuckle from Keith, but Coran didn’t seem very amused by it. He mostly seemed to want to know what Mothman was, which got Pidge and Keith talking quite a bit.

“That suggestion was stupid, but that’s not a bad idea.” Allura said, her legs crossed on the couch where she was sitting near Shiro, not next to, near. They’d been like that a lot more lately.

“That’s what I’m here for,” Lance quipped. Allura rolled her eyes, but smiled fondly as Lance shot finger guns at her, Keith snickering behind him as he made his way onto the couch.

“What do you mean? We’re going to go out and find a monster to fight?” Pidge seemed way too excited about that idea. To be fair, Pidge and Keith both loved monster movies, Lance had been humoring her and Keith by watching a lot of them the past few days, just to make them feel better.

“Well,” Allura said, “if we get Zarkon to come after and attack us, maybe you’ll be able to figure it out.” Keith dropped into Lance’s lap, his arms behind his head so Lance set a hand on his chest. This was the most affectionate they’d been in front of the team, and it made Lance a little stiff. Keith was falling asleep, though, and Lance knew he needed it, so he didn’t dare move. It would be worth the cramping later.

“That’s far too risky.” Coran shook his head. “There’s no way we could risk the Paladins or the lions that way.”

“At this rate Zarkon might just get to us first instead of us being ready for an attack.” Allura huffed as they barked back and forth briefly and then she crossed her arms, seeming to settle on letting it go for now.

“You know though,” Lance said, “the lions are fairly powerful on their own, what if we just smack them and run our asses out of there.” He thought for a brief moment, everyone looking at him, even Keith. “Yeah, actually, Pidge, you’ve managed to give the green lion a cloaking device right? We use the same plan as before, only now we have four lions to tease and run back up, while Pidge is inside the facility long enough to say, get the info she needs and get out? No trying to bring it down, we could really just expose it.”

“That’s not a terrible idea,” Pidge said, “and I do have a cloaking device to test with Green, she and I have been batting the idea around quite a bit.”

“Yeah, so we sneak in, don’t really do much, and then make the facility known to the rest of the world.” Lance shifted, and everyone looked at him before they all slowly agreed with the idea one by one. It wasn’t long before they were hashing out details, working through potential kinks and making rendezvous points, everyone turning to Lance for his opinion when they needed it. They kept reminding him it was his plan, which had his stomach churning from a strange mix of pride and anxiety. It was all his fault if this went wrong, but it felt good to be listened to, to feel like he contributed.

When they were done, and headed for some rest before starting preparations, he and Keith walked slowly through the halls of the castle, both in their old clothes, although, all Lance had was his uniform. They hadn’t had the chance to get anything otherwise. Keith had told him he liked how it looked on him, trying to reassure Lance that it wasn’t the worst thing he could have with him.

“Do you think this will actually work?” Keith asked. Lance sighed.

“I hope so.”

They stayed quiet, getting into bed together slowly once they were in Lance’s room again. It was quiet, their legs wrapped up and Keith’s face pressed into Lance’s hair as Lance played with Keith’s fingers.

When Lance woke up he didn’t remember falling asleep. Then it was up for preparation, getting the plan ready, being basically everyone’s go-for since he couldn’t really do much here other than make suggestions about where and when to come in and the time frame. The official plan was to grab onto some key parts of the facility that were sticking out of the ground and drag it up. Once it was out of the cavern and dirt, the bee’s hive would be buzzing enough for Pidge to sneak in.

It was hard to imagine the lions moving something so massive, but Allura and Coran were positive that the could with some help from the castle and apparently there wasn’t much actually holding the facility in there. A few layers of heavy desert sand and that was it. Lance was sitting in Blue thinking about it, absent-mindedly asking her questions. Allura had informed them which of lions were female, which was all but the yellow lion for some reason.

“What do you think girl? Think we’ll pull it off?” Lance talked to Blue like he talked to the estranged mutt that was sometimes in their house in Mexico when it was cold. Unlike other times, Lance felt a breeze wash over him, Blue throwing him an image of him and Keith alone. He blushed, seeing it from the outside, it must have been how Blue saw it, that day in the hangar when Lance first got back, bloody and he could see the relief on his own face. “Is that how you see us? What does that mean?”

Blue didn’t respond this time, and Lance sighed, “well, thanks anyway girl.”

He patted the controls and paused a bit, watching the rainbow flow over them slowly, “so uh, this. I noticed the yellow lion’s controls are all yellow, why are mine rainbow?”

“Are you talking to yourself again?” Keith’s voice made Lance jump out of his skin, turning to see him setting a box down and strapping it to the ground. He smiled as he walked up behind Lance, leaning on the back of the pilot’s seat. His body quirked, his elbow near Lance’s head and his hip against the arm. “Blue really seems to know you well.”

“What was in that box?” Lance glanced back at it, but Keith cupped his cheek, turning Lance’s head to get him to look up at his smile.

“Provisions in case we get separated and you need to lie low with Blue.” Keith leaned down, pressing a little kiss to Lance’s lips and another flash of an image came to him again. This time, Blue showed him the moment of bliss was Keith bent towards him. Lance felt his ears get hot, and Keith chuckled. “It was only a kiss, what’s with you.”

“Uh, it’s nothing, Blue, just, Blue’s been talking to me,” he said, “still getting used to it.”

“Really? Red doesn’t seem to like me so much as tolerate me.” Keith crossed his arms, huffing as he looked over Lance’s controls. “But, she does seem willing to work with me, she likes to fly.”

“Just like you,” Lance said, a soft smile on his lips and Keith nodded, looking down bashfully.

“You know, Shiro and I were in the air force together,” he said, “and we always talked about going to space together. Instead we went to the academy.”

“Bit of a switch there.” Lance pondered it for a moment, the thought of Keith in full colors was nice, and in one of those pilot’s jumpsuits, “I can’t believe you’re older than me.”

“Really? Why?” Keith shifted again, now bending at the waist to look down at Lance. It was pretty cute, seeing him so curious, Lance was happy that he got to have these soft moments with Keith. It took the edge off trying to save the Earth and maybe the Universe.

“Cause you look ten years younger when you’re terrified somebody’s going to arrest you,” Lance said, getting up and poking through the box of food Keith had given him. Keith laughed, leaning on the pilot’s chair again.

“That could make anyone look ten years younger.” He headed off the blue lion after stepping around Lance. “We should both try to get some actual rest. No one on the ship has been sleeping.”

“You’re right.” Lance got up and followed him, his hand wrapping around Keith’s as they padded back towards their room. Everything was louder than it had been when they first got to the castle. Now they could hear the rumble of the engines, the teledov, the charge of the weapons’ systems. Coran and Allura had explained that the castle had been essentially dormant, really only able to fly and track down the large amount of quintessence that Zarkon was gathering in his base. 

With the lions back, the castle seemed to be restored to full power. Better yet, the castle’s weapons’ systems automatically started to update when they came back online. Ten thousand years is surely a long time, it took days, and some help from Pidge to push things through, and now it was faster than Coran could remember it being. So everything rattled and churned and groaned as they walked down the hallway.

It didn’t take them long to notice the difference in the noise, it was sudden and sharp, but neither had time to process it before the castle lurched sideways, sending them flying. Keith managed to get his helmet on, Lance wasn’t so lucky, but he did manage to cover his head before he hit the wall. They both bolted upright on the wall, it was tilted, but Lance could feel it starting to fall back. He slipped his helmet on and grabbed hold of Keith as he yelled into the comm.

“What the hell was that!?” Keith was holding his hand to his head when the gravity shut off. At the very least, that meant the probably wouldn’t be hitting anymore walls. Everyone echoed his question in the comm save for Allura who was apparently on the bridge.

“There’s a warship out here.” Allura’s voice was cold and grave. “Zarkon came to us first, the Castle is reading it now, but it seems like he flew his facility right out of the ground.”

The whole comm blew up, everyone asking thirty questions at once. Shiro’s voice came over the comm the loudest after a moment. “Everyone calm down and report, one at a time!” Lance could see Keith twitch at the sound of the yelling.

“Keith and I are good,” Lance said.

“I’m good.” Pidge chirped.

“I’m doing alright, I’m getting in the yellow lion now.” Hunk’s comm crackled.

“I’m making my way to the bridge.” Coran could be heard pawing at something in the background.

“Allura and I are on the bridge. Get to your lions. This is the real deal guys.” Shiro made the decision for everyone, but it sounded like it might have been whispered by Allura first, her voice barely reaching the comm. Everyone called in agreement.

Lance turned to head for the Blue lion’s hangar, but Keith stopped him, tugging on his arm so that he’d float into a kiss. He let himself sink into it for a moment, his hands on Keith’s hips as Keith cupped his face. Then they parted, heading for different areas of the castle, the rumbling and roaring getting louder around them as Allura started to mount some kind of a defense.


	12. Chapter 12

Heart racing, Lance fell into the pilot’s seat, Blue roaring to life before he even had his hands on the throttle. His head swam, trying to remember the smallest parts of the controls, just as a reminder before he went soaring out into space. Blue didn’t really give him much time, but he’d straightened himself out by the time they were flying.

“Listen Blue,” Lance said, “I don’t know why you chose me for this, but please help me protect Earth. Please.”

He said a prayer, and just as he finished, the Spanish sticking thick in his throat as he thought about his mom and dad back at home, and Keith inside Red. Lance took a deep breath, following the other lions towards the battleship which did look like it was the exact same as what had been in the ground on Earth. He saw Pidge head straight for the middle, on a mission to destroy as she yelled over the comm about her brother and father. Shiro was yelling back at her about over reaching.

It didn’t really matter, because Keith was right behind her, and Lance followed close behind them, “Pidge, Keith, sure up, the weak point is the undercarriage remember? Keith distract the guns and Pidge and I can hit it hard.”

“You got it.” Keith diverted, the guns following him since he started to attack them directly. Pidge shot straight down then, her control better than Lance had ever seen it.

“Good idea Lance,” Shiro’s voice crackled over the comm, “I’m going to stay near the castle, it’s in pretty rough shape, I’m gonna try to provide some cover, but that means you three will be on your own for now, Hunk stay with me.”

“No problem,” Lance said, diving after Pidge and taking out the three fighter ships coming at them. Pidge shot the belly of the ship, full force and straight on before they whizzed past, followed by the strange silence of explosions in space.

“I could use a little help,” Kieth rocketed over Zarkon’s ship, the Red lion trying to escape several fighter ships which were catching up to him quick. Lance shot two out from where they were, Pidge and Green heading straight for Red.

“On our way.” Pidge shot down two more ships, so Lance backed around the warship, taking a shot at one of the guns and managing to hit it well enough that it wouldn’t work anymore and as he turned back towards the source of the fighter ships, he knew he had to go for the hangar they were coming out of.

“I’m gonna try and cut them off,” Lance said. He got no response, but he sped into the field of fighter ships, shooting them down and bouncing off them as best he could, listening to Blue’s every move and word, the images of what he had to do flashing through his head like orders.

“Lance are you crazy!?” It was Keith’s voice, Lance was taking fire, but he pressed on, hearing Pidge tell Keith to try to provide him more cover. Lance was too focused to notice how bad Blue was hurting, and it seemed that maybe Blue hadn’t noticed it yet either. As they neared the doors, Lance reminded himself, all he’d have to do was shoot the hinges out and it’d snap back shut. There were purple fighters everywhere, ships coming at him from all sides as he pressed on.

Keith and Pidge shot a few out at the perimeter, his radar showed it, but he didn’t actually see it happen, all he saw was the massive machine sitting just at the edge of the hangar, a person in robes standing on it with two at her sides. She raised her hands, and all Lance saw was white light. He could hear himself screaming, he could feel Blue shut down and the force of her flying off in a wild spin. Lance shook his head, managing to barely right Blue as more fighters converged on him, all he could see was the brash way Red slammed into them, her jaws sinking into a wing and her head whipping it away into the warship behind them. Lance shook slightly, his hearing only now coming back as a flood of fighters came at them.

“Lance are you okay?” Shiro’s comm crackled again and Lance shook his head hard as if it would fix his helmet.

“I’m good.” Lance looked around a bit, “Blue seems good too.”

“Good, don’t get too rash, we need you, you too Keith. Fall back for now, we’re going to try to-” Shiro’s voice was cut off by the sound of the Black lion taking some kind of hit.

“Shiro!” Keith barked, “Shiro, are you okay?” Lance watched Red turn and head for the Black lion, so Lance followed, calling Pidge to follow as well, she did obediently.

“I’m fine,” Shiro said, “regroup, let’s go.”

“On our way.” Pidge flew out ahead of Lance just as the castle lit up like a fucking christmas tree with too many lights.

“Out of the way!” Allura’s voice spat and hissed through the comm, but the next thing Lance saw was a massive laser hitting the warship straight on, its shields struggling not to crumble in the wake of the castle’s energy.

“Jeez Allura, a little more warning next time?” Keith flew up on Lance’s side, having obviously done quite the evasive maneuver to get away from the beam.

“Sorry, sorry, we’ll cover, you guys try to form Voltron, please. You’re too scattered right now.” Allura’s voice only hissed now, Lance was starting to think his helmet was permanently broken as they brought the lions closer together. They flew in formation as they had a thousand times before, all of them still taking heavy fire despite Allura and Coran shooting out big groups of fighters with the castle’s main canon.

Lance was a mess, his head spinning each time he took a quick turn, but they were getting it together, fighting and flying in formation. It was rough, the battleships canon’s nearly missing them as Zarkon focused his attack on the lions rather than the castle. The bee’s hive pattern of the sentry ships and fighters had Lance on edge, everything was too scattered, too random, it was starting to over stimulate him.

Pidge called something over the comm, everyone forming together around Shiro without a second thought because he was taking too much. It was then that it happened, the blue lion sending him an image of Voltron, a swinging sword in its hands. Everyone had seen it, Hunk asking quickly and then there was a shift, the lions taking control, shifting and changing, the positions of their cock pits moving, and Hunk was yelling, yelling so loud that Lance could hardly think.

“We did it!” Hunk was cawing and then they were moving, blue’s display lighting up flat for a moment and then the technicolor came back, the controls totally different, but still workable for Lance. It was like the primary functions of the lion form had been pushed to the edges, and now everything for flying as one, as Voltron, was there in front of Lance.

“We really did it,” Keith was saying. He was the only one coming in totally clear now, Hunk being too loud to be anything but white noise and Pidge saying something about how this was strange to get used to.

“Guys focus, I know you’re all excited-” Shiro didn’t get to finish, they were now under fire more than they had been this entire time. They took a hard hit, and everyone refocused, in motion together as they piloted, Lance could tell, he could feel it, Blue sending him signals on what to do, almost as if he could hear her voice.

The battleship was in trouble now, he could see the scattered ships turning into a pattern, their movements easier to track so they could take them out in sweeps and blasts. Keith’s bayard gave them a sword, Pidge’s offered them a shield. Keith and Shiro led the movements, the most familiar with this type of fighting, Lance could feel their muscle memory making his own arms burn, they were connected, more connected than ever and it felt powerful.

His mind sizzled as he felt himself falling and faltering in the movements, he wasn’t as quick, and he was losing sync with everyone else. “Lance, buddy,” Shiro said, “you have to keep up, come on.”

Lance swallowed the lump in his throat, the colors on his board changing slightly, seeming to make things more clear, Blue was trying to help, she was pushing him to be better, but Lance was falling to the fear and anxiety from flight school. He didn’t respond, instead chosing to try to focus, dig his teeth down and just try harder.

It didn’t work. They blew apart, the lions seeming to screech and the loss of the connection making Lance feel cold, so incredibly cold. He’d lost the confidence and power he’d gotten from Shiro and Keith, and the rage from Pidge. Now he was just left with the quiet of his own deserted brain.

“Lance! Lance, are you there?” It was Keith.

“Yeah, sorry,” he said. The comm line shut, he heard it, and then reconnected to just Keith as he flew in line with Blue, Red seeming to glance at the two of them.

“Lance,” Keith said, “we’re going to retry that, okay?” Keith’s voice was ragged, like he was unsure of himself and how he was talking.

“I’ll try harder.” Lance was weak, his stomach had pitted out hard and he felt like if he’d had food in him he’d be puking, but he wasn’t, not yet.

“You don’t have to try harder Lance,” Keith said, “just calm down, we need your level headed strategy right now. You’re the only one that has anything like that. Shiro and I can bring all the fighting skills we want, but Red told me that without someone who can find the pattern we’re useless. She thinks that’s you.”

Lance stared at his controls, thinking about the way the ships had moved before. There had been a pattern there, hadn’t there? He could see it better in his head now, and the comm line crackled, Keith’s voice wavering as he said something about it being early or soon or something, but Lance was still lost in his head, seeing the pattern again, but only seeing the scattered fighter planes on the screen.

“Lance please, I love you, you’re not useless, we need you right now.” Keith’s voice was choked and it was just enough to snap him back to reality. Lance brought the rest of the comm line back up and his eyes shot over to Red quickly. He could talk later, when they were all alive and back on the castle.

“If we form Voltron again, I think I know a way to take out the fighters and stop them from sending more at us,” Lance said.

“There he is!” Hunk yelped and Lance heard Keith give a confident agreement behind Hunk.

“Okay, form Voltron, follow Lance’s lead, got it guys?” Shiro was already back in formation, Pidge right along side him, so Lance and Keith fell in line with Hunk. It didn’t take much else this time, they were a giant robot again fast, the lions pumping images to them and giving them signals on what to do.

As soon as they snapped back into palce and started moving together, he felt the whole team quiet around him, Keith and Shiro bringing their fighting to the plate while Pidge kept their shiled up, trying to keep them from taking too much damage.

“They’re all coming from the same hanger, but it’s open on both sides of the ship,” Lance said, “that’s why it looks like we kicked a bee’s nest, but the sentries flying most of the fighters all move the same way.”

“So we just need to mess up the pattern and what? They’ll start, like, running into each other?” Hunk was speaking while simultaneously focusing on what he was doing, which made him sound so incredibly calm.

“Yes, but we need a gun, it’d be better than the sword.” Lance’s bayard lit up just as he said it, and like Keith before him he figured out quick what to do with it. “Guys I think I’ve got this.”

“Go for it!” Pidge was shouting, and Shiro was agreeing. Lance could hear Keith saying something, but he missed it as he slammed the bayard and turned it hard. Blue lit up like a light, and the next thing he knew, Lance had a sight in front of him on the screen, a sleek rifle displayed that mirrored the one his bayard had turned into in Zarkon’s facility on Earth.

“Yes, it’s a gun!” Lance zipped into action, his hands working around easily, spotting sentry fighters, everyone helping him to fly through the pattern as he shot sentires out, Voltron spinning and turning like a top. A well oiled machine that they never even ralized they had on their side.

“Holy shit,” Keith muttered as Lance took out four sentires with a single shot, managing to line it up exactly as he needed to. He felt the raw confidence he was getting from Shiro grow wider, his movements keeping up with Lance’s easily, but most of all he could feel Keith’s brimming pride, Keith was proud of him and Lance had probably never really been so excited to have someone’s approval in his life.

They spun hard, and there they were, in front of the same doors Lance had gone for before where he’d gotten himself smacked silly by something, a fighter? A sentry? He hardly remembered all the times he’d hurt himself with Blue at this point.

He shot out the hanger’s hinges as he’d tried to before. It went smoothly, the rifle taking an easy shot which earned him a cheer from Hunk and another surprised, excited swear from Keith. Pidge was calling out other targets for Lance now, offering coordinates that Lance could easily line up on Blue’s screen, the sight giving them a crazy advantage, especially now as the fighters couldn’t overwhelm them now, they couldn’t get out fast enough, and Voltron could move more fluidly, sweeping under the battleship and taking out a few lower guns before they took out the hinges on the other side of the hanger, the last sentry coming through shot down just after.

“That was great,” Coran’s voice was wild and excited, “now get out of there, we’re going to try and put in a final blow.”

“Have you confirmed no prisoners on that ship?” Pidge asked quickly.

“Yes,” Allura said, “only Galra lifeforms are aboard.”

With that they spun out, heading back for the castle, but the battleship was charging something, it’s main canon mangled, but still, it was a warship, it probably had more guns. Much to Allura and Coran’s dismay, their most powerful shot cracked the hull and nothing more, the battleship opening up a worm hole just in front of it’s nose, heading in.

“No!” Allura was shouting, “no, no! Zarkon you coward, don’t you dare run!”

Allura seemed to try to follow, but the wormhole was closed by the time the castle passed through the spot it had been, Coran shouting about not leaving the Paladins behind. They could hear Allura swearing in Altean.

“But what if that was our last chance?” She whined, her voice weak and a loud smacking coming from her hitting a control. “What if they leave Coran?”

“Allura we’re not leaving.” Shiro said, the lions broke apart, all of them heading into their separate hangers. Lance went running out of his after kissing Blue’s paw, his helmet at his side.

He crashed into Keith, who tugged him down into a sweet kiss, their adrenaline still driving through their bodies as Lance dropped his helmet in favor of holding Keith by the small of his back. Keith’s hands were on his face, his eyes wide when he pulled away. “I love you too,” Lance said, “thank you so much.”

Keith smiled, so sweetly that Lance pulled him closer so they could press their noses together. “I promise, I’ll go wherever you go,” Keith said.

“I’m staying here, we need to do this, for Pidge, for Earth, for Allura and Coran,” Lance said. Keith’s smile turned into a wide grin, his emotions clearly mixed up and running wild, but he was handling it his way, which seemed to be letting himself cry while he was smiling wider than Lance had ever seen him.

“Such a hero,” Keith said, “everyone’s going to miss the best cop in New Mexico.”

Lance smiled, putting on that fake flirty thing he did, “they’ll miss the best academy drop out and pilot too.”

Keith laughed, and it seemed enough to get him to stop crying, wiping at his face before they walked hand-in-hand to the cotrol center. Shiro and Pidge were already there, Allura looked frustrated and anxious, looking Keith and Lance over made her smile, though, which was a start.

“Are you two still in?” Allura looked like she worried, horribly worried, that they would say no.

“Of course we are,” Keith said, “I can’t leave Shiro and Lance out here with no one to take care of them.”

Lance snorted and got an arm around Keith’s shoulders, tugging him in for a little hug, “yeah ‘cause we’re the ones that need taking care of, not the recluse who lived in a shack up until recently.”

“Well I’ve somehow gone from a shack to a castle. I think I’ve done all right.” Keith laughed and when Lance looked back at Allura she was proud, her hand in Shiro’s now as she turned to him, because Hunk burst in shouting about how awesome, but terrifying, but awesome that whole thing was.

“Well Allura,” Coran said, “looks like we have a lot of work to do to get the teleduv working.”

Hunk lit up, “what’s a teleduv, wait, let me guess, wormhole generator?” Coran told him yes and they excitedly started to talk about everything that needed to be done, Hunk hoping to be very hands on with it all.

Shiro patted Pidge on the head, who looked somber and worried, but more hopeful than Lance had ever seen her. She took a few steps towards Lance and Keith, throwing her arms around them at the same time, “thank you so much for being here for me, for us.” They knew us meant her dad and Matt.

Keith ruffled her hair and Lance smirked. “Don’t worry, we’ll find them, I promised I’d help you find them, and so did Lance,” Keith said. Pidge’s smile was wide and genuine, her hands coming up and together in her excitement.

“I know we’ll find them together,” Pidge said and then added, “and we have the extra bonus of being on this awesome space ship.”

Lance laughed, as Coran and Hunk started off on what they were doing, so Pidge followed quick. Shiro and Allura were already talking strategies, wandering off, leaving Lance and Keith alone again, looking out at the stars from the quiet bridge.

“Do you think we’ll be able to do it? To actually stop Zarkon?” Keith asked softly, almost like he was trying not to ruin the peace they had around them.

Lance looked out over the expanse of stars, thinking about the way they looked from his window in the sleepy desert town. The desert and space weren’t so different, lots of quiet, moving things. He smiled and squeezed Keith’s hand hard, “I think we can. If we’re together, we can.”

Keith blinked at him a moment, and grinned again, all his confidence bristling again as they looked at each other. He tugged on Lance’s hand, pulling him into another kiss, so Lance let go to set his hands on Keith’s cheeks. Lance could feel Keith’s hands on the outside of his armor, the two of them pressing as close to each other as they possibly could, just holding onto each other in the quiet of the castle.

 

 

Epilogue.

Lance came out of the store with a smoothie in his hand, smiling bright as he saw Keith in the distance on his bike. They’d been given time on Earth, three days to do whatever they needed before they left. Pidge had called her mother, explained that she was leaving school, Lance skyped his parents and siblings, Keith and Shiro called Shiro’s mom and Hunk went to visit his parents.

Now they had time to themselves, getting things ready, packing bags and give two-week notices. That hadn’t been necessary for Lance, he’d been fired already, he had a message on his phone when he got back on the ground that told him so. He didn’t really mind, and he didn’t bother to turn in his gun, he’d left it in the castle anyway. As he approached Keith, he smiled more, the town buzzing around.

Apparently, the recent UFO event had brought a lot of business there, people claiming a big ship had launched out of the desert, leaving a huge cavern behind. The government claimed it was just a sink hole and the sightings of the alien battleship were baseless even though people had videos. Lance sort of liked it all, buying himself an ‘I want to believe shirt’ that matched Keith’s, the only difference was it had the battleship they’d fought just behind Jupiter on it. He thought it was clever, Keith had rolled his eyes when he’d first seen it.

“Hey, baby.” Lance kissed Keith’s arm as he tugged the motorcycle helmet Lance had been forcing him to wear off. Lance was stunned solid for a moment as Keith shook out his bangs, his mullet complete cropped off in the back. He looked like he had back when Lance had seen him in the academy. “Holy shit.”

Keith blinked at him, “what? Oh, my hair, yeah I was worried it would get too long in space and I didn’t want to deal with Shiro or Coran trying to cut it.”

“But your mullet,” Lance whined. Keith looked confused and then laughed as he got off the bike, heading into the diner that was below Lance’s old apartment. They’d packed it all up and put it in Keith’s little shack, figuring that was enough. Their luggage was all on the Red Lion which was hidden behind a ridge in the desert.

“You hated my mullet.” Keith paused, “and it wasn’t a mullet.”

“It grew on me,” Lance said, rubbing the back of Keith’s head, pouting just a bit. A haircut had been a good idea, though, considering Lance’s hair was curling at the edges again, he should probably do the same soon.

Keith chuckled and kissed him quickly before they sat down at Lance’s usual booth, soon it was going to be empty all the time. “It’ll grow back, don’t worry,” Keith said.

“Yeah true,” Lance said, the little lady behind the counter smiling as she leaned over to say hello. He had a quick conversation with her in Spanish about moving out and moving in with Keith. She congratulated them in a way that was so sweet, Lance almost felt bad for the half-lie he’d told her.

“What are you boys going to do? I heard you aren’t a cop anymore,” she asked, making it a point to walk to the table and speak to them in English so Keith could understand.

“Ah, didn’t you hear? We’re going to start chasing UFO’s professionally,” Lance said and Keith sniggered, “y’know, since there are apparently alien battleships hidden in the desert. I’m gonna be Scully and he’s gonna be Mulder.”

Keith was near crying from laughter as the sweet older lady rolled her eyes and called him a jokester. She still brought them pie, a wide smile on her face and wished them well. By the time they were done eating it was getting late, so Lance bought a pair of hair clippers cheap at a store rather than getting his haircut. He’d figure that all out later, plus Shiro would probably appreciate having them around.

He got on the back of Keith’s bike, slipping his helmet on as they took off into the desert with the last of their things. Lance popped the radio on in the helmet, “how come you got to fly us down here again?”

“Because I’m the better pilot.” Keith said it without even taking a beat, the two of them laughing quickly as they drove. “It was because Red is smaller. And Green has a cloaking device now.”

“Yeah, yeah, Blue and I would’ve been fine,” Lance said. Keith just chuckled, the two of them enjoying the noise of the bike for a bit before they came around a ridge to where the red lion was sitting pretty. “So you sure you don’t want to have cockpit sex before we head back to the castle?”

Lance was stepping off the bike so Keith could wheel it up into red, because he needed it in space for some reason. Keith laughed, parking the bike and strapping it down carefully so it wouldn’t fall over, Lance following him the whole entire way.

“Quit being so dirty,” Keith said, “what’s Red going to think of you?”

“I don’t know, Blue encourages me usually,” Lance said, following Keith as he got into the pilot’s seat, starting Red up.

“I’m not going to traumatize my lion because you’re horny and impatient,” Keith laughed, but he did tug Lance down into a heated kiss, one that had Lance leaning into Keith more and more until Keith pushed him back up easily.

“Awe babe, c’mon,” Lance whined. Keith just laughed and took off in one swift motion, his hands falling over the controls easily. Lance took advantage of being this close, watching him move and admiring his boyfriend as they sailed into the atmosphere and out into space where the castle of lions waited for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who followed this fic!!! It's surreal to be done with it, but I had so much fun writing it!!!! I can't wait for the next project I do on Voltron :)


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